


The Winchester Christmas Countdown

by mookitano10



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/F, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Family Feels, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Ice Skating, Kid Jack Kline, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Mistletoe, Parent Castiel (Supernatural), Parent Dean Winchester, Parent Sam Winchester, Secret Santa, Stress Baking, Team Free Will 2.0 (Supernatural), Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:20:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 40,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27812176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mookitano10/pseuds/mookitano10
Summary: Just a collection of short fics to countdown to christmas. We’ll see if I can write 25 short stories without losing steam after a couple days. Fingers crossed. These fics are just random, some of them are canon compliant and some are AU. Enjoy!
Relationships: Castiel & Claire Novak, Castiel & Jack Kline, Castiel & Sam Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester, Claire Novak & Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester & John Winchester, Dean Winchester & Mary Winchester, Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester, Jack Kline & Dean Winchester, Jack Kline & Sam Winchester, Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester, John Winchester & Sam Winchester, Kaia Nieves/Claire Novak, Mary Winchester & Sam Winchester
Comments: 21
Kudos: 51





	1. December 1st

**December 1st**

“Ow, fuck! Cas, hold it still!” Sam looks up with amusement at the large fir tree that appears to be swearing at the angel. Castiel huffs and lifts the tree effortlessly revealing Dean crouched behind it sucking on a finger that got pinched between the tree trunk and the base.

“Are you alright Dean?”

“I’m fine, put the tree back in the base and hold it still while I screw it in.” He grumbles. Cas rolls his eyes but complies with the older Winchester’s orders. He doesn’t understand the point of cutting down a perfectly good tree just to dress it up and watch it die slowly, but the wistful look in Dean’s eyes when they drove past the tree farm the day before almost broke his heart. So, if he was the first person on the lot when they opened the next day and he spent two hours examining every tree until he found a perfect one to surprise his favorite humans with, well it was nobody’s business but his own.

The awed look on Dean’s face when Cas carried the tree down the stairs into the bunker made his heart skip a beat. He’d do anything if it meant Dean would look at him like that. Dean quickly schooled his excitement and made an off handed remark about how he’d gotten the tree too early and it would be dead by December 25th. Cas ignored it and told Dean to go get the base out of his truck so they could set it up. That’s how they ended up in their current positions. Dean contorting his body to try and screw the tree into the base and Sam telling Cas that the tree is leaning too far to the left or too far forward so he could adjust it. Which is how Dean ended up with a sore finger.

“Alright, I think I got it.” Dean groans and stands up, stretching his back and observing the tree with a slight tilt to the right. He frowns but decides that it’s as good as it’s gonna get. Who cares if the tree isn’t perfectly straight?

“Um, why is there a tree in the middle of the war room?” Jack asks. He’s squinting at the light and running his fingers through his sleep tousled hair. Sam wonders how the kid slept through all the arguing and general comotiong of putting the tree up.

“It’s a Christmas tree.” Dean says as if the nephilim knows anything about Christmas. Jack just squints at him even more and Dean is struck, yet again, with how much the kid reminds him of Cas. “It’s a tradition, you put up the tree and Santa leaves presents under it on Christmas Eve.”

“Santa?” Jack asks.

“You know, big guy, red suit, bushy beard, flies around in a magic sleigh pulled by reindeer.” Dean tries to explain but he can see that Jack still has no idea what he’s talking about.

“Sam?” Dean looks at his brother for assistance. Sam just rolls his eyes and launches into an explanation of the holiday and it’s history. By the time he’s done Dean and Cas have the lights on and are sorting through the shopping bags full of ornaments that’ Cas bought. Dean hands Jack a tiny ceramic reindeer with a red nose and tells him to hang it on the tree. The four of them work together until the tree is fully adorned with brightly colored baubles and figurines.

Dean takes a step back to observe their work. It’s almost perfect but there's something missing. Then his eyes focus on the top of the tree.

“Are we gonna put an angel on the top?” Cas and Jack have twin looks of confusion at Dean’s question.

“Why would an angel sit on top of our christmas tree?” Cas asks.

“It’s just what people do.” Dean shrugs “Maybe it symbolises angels watching over people or something?” Cas just looks even more confused.

“Not a real angel.” Sam clarifies. “And some people put a star at the top.”

“I don’t like the idea of an angel on top of the tree. They don’t watch over people like that and it just makes me feel weird.” Cas grumbles.

“Star it is then.” Dean claps his hands together and starts searching through the decorations Cas got. He doesn’t find a star but he does find a stuffed abominable snowman that he thinks will make an even better tree topper.

They spend the rest of the evening sipping hot cocoa and introducing Jack and Cas to classic christmas movies.


	2. December 2nd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam and Eileen go ice skating

Sam fusses with his hair in the bathroom mirror for a ridiculously long time. He just couldn’t get that one piece to stop falling in his face. With a huff he gives up and decides to just wear a hat. They’ll be outside anyways, so it’ll keep his ears warm, in addition to restraining the rogue hairs. 

Dean barely glances his way when he pokes his head into the ‘Dean Cave’ to say goodbye. Jack and Cas both wave him away distractedly. They're in the middle of a Lord of the Rings marathon and are too engrossed in the films to pay Sam any mind. 

“Have fun Sammy!” Dean throws over his shoulder “Tell Eileen we said hi.”

“Will do” he responds. 

When Eileen told him she’d never been ice skating he’d been a little surprised but then when he actually thought about it he didn’t know why it surprised him. She was a hunter, and an orphan. Who would have taken her ice skating? Sam himself had had a similar lack of traditional Christmas activities until he got to college and started dating Jess. He tried not to dwell on that memory. The Last time he went ice skating was with Jess just a few months before she died. 

Eileen is a natural on the ice. She started off a little wobbly but after a while she was skating circles around Sam as he fumbled along. 

“It’s been a while since I last skated,” Sam says in an attempt to save face. “I just need a minute to get my bearings.” 

“Do you need me to slow down?” Eileen teases him as she glides gently into his side and grabs onto his arm. They make a few laps around the rink like that and Sam is man enough to admit, even if it’s only to himself, that Eileen’s steady grip keeps him upright once or twice when he starts to slip. 

“This is nice.” She sighs and momentarily rests her head against his shoulder as they glide across the ice. Sam just nods and thinks about how he could stay in this moment forever.

They do a few more laps around the rink and then Eileen announces that her fingers are freezing and she’s starting to get a cramp in her foot. And Sam can’t help but smile at her bluntness. The woman isn’t afraid of telling it like it is. He offers to buy her a hot chocolate at the cafe they passed earlier and she quickly accepts. 

“That sounds great. Race you to the exit.” She laughs and then shoots across the ice away from him. He wobbles a little but takes off after her; almost crashing into another couple. 

Eileen glides into the railing near the exit and looks back to see how far behind Sam is before she steps off the ice. He’s coming up pretty fast behind her. She gives him a wink and says “I won” and then she gingerly steps off the ice. Once her feet are on the solid ground she turns back to see where Sam is and can’t see him anywhere. She looks around confused because he was only a couple feet behind her. Then she looks down and sees all six foot four of him sprawled across the ice. He pushes himself up onto his hands and knees and pouts up at her. There’s blood gushing from his nose and she quickly helps him off the ice and to a bench. All the while trying to hold back her laughter. 

“Are you ok?” She asks with a barely concealed smirk. 

“Fine” Sam groans and pinches the bridge of his nose. A kind older woman hands him a wad of tissues and pats him on the arm reassuringly. He nods his thanks to her and uses the tissues to staunch the flow of blood. 

While Sam ties his shoes Eileen returns their skates. When she gets back to him the bleeding has mostly stopped but there’s blood all over his coat and gloves. 

“How’s your face?” She presses gentle fingers against his nose and notes a shallow cut across the bridge. 

“It’s fine,” he winces. 

She slowly leans in and presses a gentle kiss to the tip of his nose and then to the corner of his mouth. “I’m sorry you fell.” She presses one more kiss to his lips and looks up at him with puppy eyes. 

Sam rolls his eyes and smiles; his sour mood dissipates. “It was my fault. I wasn’t watching where I was going and the toe of my skate caught on a glove someone had dropped.” He admits sheepishly. 

Eileen grins at him and then pulls him to his feet. “I do believe you promised me hot chocolate.” She says and starts pulling him toward the car. Sam just smiles and laces his fingers through hers. 

When they get back to the bunker a few hours later Sam tries to sneak past the rest of his family but Dean catches sight of them and waves them into the war room. Eileen immediately complies even while Sam pretends he didn’t notice and tries to pull her down the hallway. 

“What are you crazy kids up to?” Dean asks and Sam knows he’s lost his chance to get away. He reluctantly follows Eileen into the war room and Dean’s gaze immediately zeroes in on his busted up nose. He looks at Eileen and gestures toward Sam.

“He get a little fresh with you?” He asks her, clearly joking.

“Oh no, nothing like that. He was too busy introducing his face to the ice,”

Dean barks out a laugh at that and pretty soon they’re both howling with laughter at Sam’s misfortune. 

“I hate you both” Sam grumbles and wanders off to find an ice pack for his nose. After the laughter dies down Eileen fnds him sulking in the kitchen and makes it up to him with soft kisses and gentle hands guiding him to his bedroom.


	3. December 3rd

“What time do you think you’ll be here?” Mary’s voice chimes from the phone on Dean’s bed. After almost an hour of listening to her prattle on about their holiday plans, who was supposed to be there and what time they were going to be there, what they were having for dinner, when dinner would start, etc. Dean had rolled his eyes and turned on the speakerphone, then he threw it on his bed while he packed his duffle. He loved his mother but he really didn’t care about anything she was talking about so he’d been tuning her out for a good twenty minutes and hadn’t realized she’d asked him a question.

“Dean?” She huffed. 

“Yeah?” 

“What time do you think you’ll be here?” She asked again with barely concealed irritation. 

“It depends on what time Cas gets done with his exams. I’m pretty sure we’ll be there in time for dinner but it might be close.” He says distractedly as he digs through his dresser looking for the sweater his grandmother had knitted last year. The thing is ugly as sin and itchy like you wouldn’t believe but he promised his mom he’d wear it when he saw his grandma. 

“Oh that reminds me, does Cas have any food allergies or dietary restrictions?” 

“Uh, no?” He shrugs and then remembers she can’t see him.

“And you’re sure his parents are alright with him spending the holidays with us?” Mary had been fretting over Dean’s friend ever since he asked if he could bring him home for the holidays. 

“They’re on some mission trip somewhere or something. Cas said they’ve never been really big on the holidays.” He explains, for the third time. He tries not to let his frustration seep into his voice. He knows his mother just doesn’t understand how another mother could leave her child alone on Christmas. Even if that child is a grown man. 

He sees a notification pop up on his phone with a text from Cas saying he’s finished his last exam and is going to stop at his dorm and grab his stuff and meet Dean in the parking lot.

“Hey mom, I gotta let you go so I can finish packing.” He says as he shoots a quick text to Cas. 

“Ok honey, I’ll see you when you get here. Love you.”

“Love you too.” He hangs up the phone and then finishes gathering all the stuff he’ll need for the trip. 

Cas is standing next to baby staring intently at his phone. He’s got a duffle over one shoulder and a lumpy canvas bag at his feet. He looks up when Dean says his name. 

“You ready to get this show on the road?” Dean unlocks the car and throws his stuff in the trunk. Cas follows suit. 

“Ready as I’ll ever be. Thanks again for letting me tag along.” 

“Don’t mention it. You’re actually doing me a favor. With a new person there my family won’t constantly pester me about my love life.” Dean chuckles and climbs into the car. 

They pull into the Winchester’s driveway a couple hours later. They’re both stiff from the long drive but Cas is a little worse for wear. He’d sprained his knee when he slipped on a patch of ice a few weeks ago and, while it’s mostly healed, two hours in the same position isn’t the most comfortable. He groans when he stands and rubbs at his aching leg. 

“Knee acting up again?” Dean asks when Cas comes around to the back of the car to collect his bags from the trunk. Dean already has both their duffles slung over his shoulder and is debating if he can carry all of the other bags. 

“Just a little” Cas grimaces. “I can carry my stuff Dean, you don’t have to.” He tries to take his bags from Dean.

“Nah, I got it.” Dean rebuffs him. “Close the trunk for me, would ya?” Cas rolls his eyes but doesn’t try to argue. He just slams the trunk and stalks toward the house, doing his best not to limp. Dean follows behind like the faithful pack mule he is, a shit eating grin on his face. 

Cas hesitates when he gets to the door and Dean, not paying attention, narrowly misses running into his back. 

“What’s the hold up?” He asks.

“I didn’t think I should just walk in.” Cas looks back at Dean as if expecting him to open the door with the extra hand he doesn’t have. 

“Well of the two of us you’re the one with free hands so…” Dean gives him a pointed look. 

Cas just rolls his eyes and reaches for the door knob and then suddenly the door swings open. Mary grins at them from behind it.

“I thought I heard someone out here. Come in, come in” she ushers them inside. “Dean why don’t you put that stuff in your room? You must be Cas. Dean talks about you all the time.” She grabs his arm and starts leading him toward the living room without even a backwards glance at her first born. Dean stares after them, dumbfounded. 

“Nice to see you too mom.” Dean grumbles to himself. 

He finds his parents and younger brother all gathered around a flustered looking Castiel in the living room a few minutes later. Cas looks up at him with wide eyed fear and Dean gives him a quizzical look. He knew Cas had a hard time with meeting new people but he never thought his family could scare the guy off in less than five minutes. Cas is clearly sending him SOS signals but before Dean can even begin to process what to do his mother jumps up and pulls him into a tight hug, finally. 

“I’m so glad you made it here safe.” She squeezes him one more time and then lets go. “We should eat not that everyone is here” she pats Dean on the shoulder and motions for everyone to follow her into the kitchen. 

Dean tries to hang back to ask Cas what’s wrong but his little brother excitedly starts telling him about a prank war he’d had with his friends the day before. Dean gives Cas a ‘what can you do?’ look and follows Sam into the kitchen. 

Cas is awkwardly silent throughout most of the meal, and every time Dean tries to draw him into the conversation he blushes furiously and averts his gaze. Dean nudges his foot under the table to try and get his attention but that just seems to make him blush even more. After they finish eating and Dean and Sam have finished clearing up Dean pats his friend on the shoulder.

“Come on Cas lets get you set up in the guest room.” He’s glad to finally have a moment alone to ask Cas what’s wrong.

“Oh no, honey, I’ve already told grandma that aunt Cheryl can stay in our guest room this week.” 

“But where is Cas gonna sleep?” Dean asks perplexed. His mother just gives him an incredulous look.

“Dean, I’m not naive enough to think that my adult son doesn’t sleep in the same bed as his boyfriend.” Dean’s jaw drops at his mother’s words and Castiel’s face, somehow, goes an even deeper shade of red. 

“M-my what?” He stutters.

“Do you not like that term? Do you prefer partner?” 

“Partner? No, Cas isn’t… We’re not...:” He looks at Cas for some assistance but he refuses to make eye contact and suddenly Dean has an idea of what his family and might have said to Cas while he was putting all their stuff in his room.

“You don’t have to hide it from us sweety. We love you no matter what.” Mary reassures him.

“Well that’s good to know but uh, Cas is just a friend.” 

“Right, just a friend.” Sam rolls his eyes. “I don’t know about you but I don’t play footsie with my friends during family dinner.”

“That wasn’t, I was just trying to get his attention.” Dean splutters.

Cas stares at the floor with flaming cheeks and wishes for a black hole to open up at his feet. Dean’s thoughts are quickly making their way to that same track. It’s not that he’s embarrassed about his family thinking he’s into guys, because he is, it's that they’ve somehow managed to zero in on his attraction to Cas while simultaneously missing the fact that Cas is not into him. 

“And you carried in all of the bags.” Mary points out as if that proves it. 

“Because he hurt his knee and I was just trying to be nice.” Dean argues. 

“You talk about him all the time. Cas this and Cas that. And ‘guess what Cas and I did last weekend.’ You expect us to believe you’re not dating?” Sam asks. 

“We’re just, just friends” even to his own ears, he doesn’t sound convincing. Behind him Cas mumbles something about the bathroom and takes off down the hall and into the first door he finds, which is actually not the bathroom, but Dean’s room. 

Mary and Sam give Dean identical looks of disappointment. As if he was the one that upset Cas. Dean turns to his dad who’s been suspiciously quiet the whole time. John shrugs and leaves the room. He’s never been good with feelings so he usually just lets Mary handle the emotional stuff. Dean looks back at his mom and brother. 

“Cas is just my friend” he reetirates. “And I think you made him feel very uncomfortable. He doesn’t like me like that.” It hurts to say it but he knows it's the truth. 

“Is he blind?” Sam asks Mary.

“No, he’s just dumb” his mother shakes her head in dissapointment. Dean stares at them gobsmacked and then turns and stalks to his room. 

Cas is sitting on the bed with his face in his hands.

“I’m sorry Dean. Earlier they asked me all these questions about how we met and if we had any special plans for while we were here and then Sam asked how long we’d been dating and that was when you came in the room and I didn’t get a chance to warn you. I’m so sorry.” Cas babbles.

“I should be apologising to you. My family just ambushed you like that. You don’t have to share a bed with me. I’ll sleep on the couch. I’m sorry they made you feel uncomfortable” He rassures Cas.

“I don’t want to take your bed Dean, I’ll be fine on the couch.” 

“No man, you’re the guest. I’ll take the couch. Trust me, you’ll be much more comfortable on the bed.” 

“I’m not taking your bed Dean.” Cas sets his jaw in a way that Dean recognizes as his serious face. Cas can be a stubborn bastard when he wants to be and Dean knows there’s no point trying to argue with him. 

“We could share the bed” the words are out before his common sense can stop them.

“I don’t think I can do that.” Cas sighs and Dean tries not to let the hurt show on his face. He knows Cas doesn’t see him like that but it’s different hearing it straight from Cas himself. He immediately goes on the defensive. 

“I don’t bite you know, and I showered this morning.” Dean says, as if he can’t think of any other reason why Cas wouldn’t want to share a bed with him. 

Cas looks at him warily. “That’s not what I was worried about. I just…” he trails off. 

“I promise I won’t read too much into it if that’s what you’re worried about. I know you don’t like me like that.” Dean scuffs the toe of his shoe against the floor and looks anywhere but at Cas. He feels very vulnerable talking about this and he could really use that black hole right about now.

“But I do and that’s exactly the problem. I’m afraid that I will read too much into it” Cas sighs. 

Dean’s head shoots up and he stares at Cas with wide hopeful eyes. 

“You like me?” 

Cas gives a humeruless chuckle. “This is not how I pictured this conversation going.” He mumbles to himself. “Yes Dean, I like you” he sighs. 

Dean sits on the bed next to Cas and when Cas doesn’t look at him he gently bumps him with his shoulder. Cas cautiously glaces at him out of the corner of his eye and Dean grins at him.

“You like me.” It’s not a question this time it’s a statement. Cas just nods.

“So you wouldn’t object if I did this?” Dean leans in and presses his lips against Cas’. 

“I don’t mind at all.” Cas whispers against Dean’s lips and then presses in for a deeper kiss.


	4. December 4th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team free will 2.0 have a snowball fight.

“Ok Jack, just pack the snow into balls like this. Try to make as many as you can. I'm gonna build us a barricade.” Sam demonstrates how to make a snowball while Jack watches with rapt attention. He follows Sam’s example and in the time it takes Sam to make a wall of snow Jack has made a couple hundred snowballs. Sam gives him an impressed nod of approval and then crouches down behind the snow barricade and pulls out his phone. 

“Now, the bait.” He presses on Dean’s name to make the call.

“Sam?” Dean answers on the second ring.

“Hey Dean I can’t get the entrance to the garage open. I think it might be frozen shut. Will you come out and help?” 

“Yeah just give me a minute to put on some shoes.” Dean grumbles and Sam hears him Shuffling around on the other end of the line. Then a sudden burst of inspiration hits him, he can get two birds with one stone. 

“Hey Dean, see if Cas can come too. Angel strength might come in handy.” 

“Good idea.” Dean says and then hangs up. Jack starts to laugh with excitement and Sam shushes him. They wait for the tell-tale sound of the door creaking open and then when Dean calls out for Sam they both jump up and start hurling snowballs at the two unsuspecting men. 

“Dammit. Sam!” Dean yells and tries to shield himself from the cold projectiles. Cas just stands there looking perplexed and then a well aimed snowball gets him right in the face. Dean’s lips twitch but he manages to hold back his laugh and crouch down to form his own snowball. 

“Come on Cas we can’t let them get away with that. Start making snowballs.” He hurls his creation at his brother, hitting him in the shoulder. 

“It’s on!” Sam calls and hurls another two snowballs in quick succession. Cas still hasn’t moved. 

“Cas!” Dean yells at him “Get to work, this is war.” Cas quickly snaps into action and starts forming his own projectiles. Dean laughs with mirth and darts back and forth trying to dodge snowballs. He and Sam haven’t had a snowball fight in decades and he’s loving it. His fingers are frozen, there's melting snow sliding down the back of his shirt from a snowball he took the the back of his head, and, unlike Sam and the kid, he and Cas don’t have their own wall to hide behind so they’ve definitely taken more direct hits but it’s still one of the best days he’s had in awhile. 

After they’ve run out of snowballs and the barricade is half demolished from Dean tackling Sam into it, they all shuffle inside. Half melted snow drips from their hair and Sam slips on a puddle of slush at the bottom of the stars, just managing to catch himself on the railing. Jack’s cheeks and nose are bright red and Cas has snow in his left ear, but they’re all laughing. Dean gazes at his family with a soft smile, filing this memory away for Heaven, Just in case, by some miracle, he ends up there in the end. This memory is one he wouldn’t mind reliving over and over again. 

They find themselves bundled up in comfy clothes, watching A Christmas Story and sipping hot chocolate twenty minutes later. Even Cas has dressed down for the occasion, in a pair of sweats and a shirt he borrowed from Dean. His grace isn’t as reliable as it used to be so he decided not to use it to dry his clothes and when Dean offered to throw them in with his laundry and then handed Cas something dry to wear he didn’t object. 

Dean stretches out across the couch and plops his feet in Cas’ lap and the angel absentmindedly massages them while they watch the kid get his tongue stuck to a pole. Sam notices but doesn’t comment.


	5. December 5th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie puts up mistletoe to get Cas and Dean to finally kiss but her plan backfires.

Charlie and Sam stand in a corner of the room with their heads bent over Charlie's phone, not looking suspicious at all. Dean points them out to Benny after they’ve been there for several minutes. 

“What are those two up to?” Benny looks at the two in question and shrugs. 

“Maybe she’s showing him what she got you for christmas.” He guesses.

“No, that’s not it. Carlie’s the type to do all her christmas shopping on christmas eve. They’re definitely up to something.” Dean takes a swig of his beer. Benny just rolls his eyes.

“You’re too paranoid for your own good brother” Benny pats him on the shoulder. “I’m going to the kitchen to grab another beer, you want one?” Dean shakes his head and holds up his still half full bottle. Benny nods and leaves Dean alone to brood over what his brother and friend might be up to. 

Dean knows he’s not being overly paranoid because he knows Sam and Carlie and some of the shit they’ve tried to pull in the past. He glares at them and wishes he could read lips so he could figure out what they were saying. Carlie points at something just off to Dean’s left and Sam looks up with a smirk. Dean turns to see what they’re looking at and catches sight of Sam’s friend Castiel. He’s met the guy a few times but hasn’t really gotten the chance to get to know him. He even though he was kinda cute, in a weird, socially awkward kinda way. But the guy didn’t seem to like Dean very much. He’d stop talking when Dean joined the conversation and he’d all but glare a hole through Dean’s head whenever they were in the same room. 

When Dean looks back to Sam and Charlie they’re both gone and he frantically searches the room for them. He knows, he just knows they’re up to something and he will not get caught with his pants down. Not this time. 

\----------

“Trust me this will work.” Charlie whispers to Sam as she pretends to show him something on her phone.

“I don’t know Charlie. It seems like we’re leaving too much to chance.” 

“Trust me Sam. I put the mistletoe just above the snack table and as soon as I bring out my famous Raspberry crumble pie those two will be the first ones there. The plan is foolproof.” 

“But how do we know they’ll be the first ones there? Or that no one else will be there too?”

“Because I know them. They’ve both proposed marriage to me for the recipe, on multiple occasions. As soon as they see me come out of the kitchen with it they’ll be on their knees at my feet.”

“Ok, you have a point there, but that still doesn’t guarantee that there won’t be anyone else standing at the snack table” Sam argues.

“That’s why I put it at the far end where there's not a lot of room, and I didn’t put any other snacks on that end so there’s no reason anyone would be near there until after I bring out the pie. And we’ve already established that those two will be first in line. As soon as I step back I’ll point out the mistletoe hanging over their heads and then we’ll use peer pressure to make them finally kiss.” She ends her monologue with a maniacal laugh and then catches sight of Castiel coming through the door. 

“Show time Sammy.” She points at the wary looking man standing just inside her front door. 

“Wow I’m surprised he actually came” Sam says. 

“Oh, he tried to give me some bulshit excuse about studying when I invited him but after I, subtly, hinted that Dean would also be here, he changed his tune pretty quickly.”

“Oh did he?” Sam asks with raised eyebrows. 

“Yep” She says with a pop of the p. “I’m gonna go grab the pie” She gives Sam a double thumbs up and then scurries off into the kitchen. Sam just rolls his eyes and goes to find the place with the best view of their trap.

“Who wants pie!” Charlie class as she enters the room holding her masterpiece aloft. Dean and Castiel’s heads whip up in unison at her words and they both start walking toward her with determination.

Charlie sets the pie on the table and steps back only to bump into a warm solid body. Two large hands clamp gently on her shoulders to steady her.

“Oh sorry cher, didn’t mean to sneak up on ya. Is that that famous raspberry pie Dean waxes poetic about?” Benny asks. Before Charlie can answer or even feel a pang of disappointment at her plan being ruined by Benny of all people, she hears Ash steal what was supposed to be her line.

“Look who’s under the mistletoe.” He giggles and Charlie wants to murder him. Benny looks up and then quickly back down at the little redhead next to him. His face flushes in embarrassment. 

“Uh, that’s… we don’t have to…” he looks pleadingly at the other guests and then back at Charlie “I don’t think it would be right to make Charlie kiss a guy just for the sake of some stupid holiday tradition.” Benny looks pleased with his sound argument but the drunk party guests aren't having it. They’re chanting ‘kiss kiss kiss kiss’ and if Charlie ever figures out who started it she’ll skin them alive. 

“Rules are rules babe.” Charlie’s girlfriend Dorothy says with a smug little smirk. Dorothy knew about the mistletoe and she’d been against the whole thing. So it was safe to say she was a little pleased with it all blowing up in Charlie’s face, even if it meant her girlfriend would have to kiss a large cajun man.

Charlie looks up at Benny with a grimace that he tries not to find offensive. He knows she doesn’t swing his way but he’s not some disease ridden scoundrel as her face seems to suggest.

“I’m sorry Benny. It’s not you, it’s just the thought of kissing any man that makes me feel icky.” She apologises when she realises how her reaction might make him feel uncomfortable. But he’s a good natured guy so he just shrugs it off and gives her a smile.

“Might as well give these deviants what they want. It don’t have to be anything special, just a quick peck between friends.” He reassures her. She screws her eyes shut and pushes up on her tiptoes to plant a quick kiss to his lips. The kiss lasts less than half a second but they both pull away with red faces and look anywhere but at each other. The party guests all cheer and then someone asks if they can cut into the pie yet and that’s when they learn that the pie has disappeared. In the middle of all the excitement Dean had snuck in behind Benny and Charlie and grabbed the pie but his attempt to make a clean break with it was thwarted by Castiel. Dean offered him half the pie for his silence and after a very short, like, almost nonexistent, deliberation he agreed and the two of them snuck out the back door with the pie and two forks. 

They sat in Dean’s car and ate the whole pie by themselves and they didn’t feel guilty about it either. Dean knew Charlie had been up to something and it didn’t take him very long to piece it together once he saw the trap for what it truly was. He knows if Benny hadn’t interfered he would have been the one stuck under the mistletoe with Castiel. When he explained to Castiel the other man didn’t believe him. He thought it was too far fetched but Dean had texted Dorothy and asked her point blank if that mistletoe was put there to trick him into kissing Castiel she said yes. 

“She just sold out her girlfriend like that?” Castiel asked. He almost looked offended on Charlie's behalf.

“She doesn’t always agree with Charlie's shenanigans. She won’t stop them but she also won’t lie about them. I’ve learned that if I ask her she’ll tell me the truth.” Dean says and then pats his stomach with satisfaction.

“Now, if only I could weedle the recipe for that pie out of her” he sighs.

“I’ve already tried that. She’s adamant that she’s not privy to that information” Castiel grumbles. 

Dean can’t help but smile at how cute he looks when he’s pouting. His eyes linger on his full bottom lip that still has a few crumbs stuck to it and before his brain can stop him he’s wiping them away with his thumb. Castiel’s eyes lock on his and he freezes, his thumb still gently pressed to the other man’s lip. He jerks his hand away like he’s been burned and his face flushes a deep red.

“Sorry, you, uh, you had some crumbs…” He trails off and self consciously scratches the back of his neck.

“Oh, um, thank you.” Castiel looks just as flustered as Dean feels. Dean takes that as a good sign and a surge of bravery washes through him. He seizes it before it slips away from him.

“Wouldyouliketogooutwithme?” He says in a rush.

“What?” 

“A date, would you like to go on a date.” He clarifies and then as an afterthought adds “with me?”

Castiel gives him a shy smile and nods “I’d like that.”

Dean beams at him and even though he’s still pissed at Sam and Charlie for their meddling he also thinks he should thank them for it.


	6. December 6th

“I don’t know Sam, don’t you think they’re a little young?” Dean asks as he cleans up the remnants of his eight month old twins lunch. Sam just shakes his head and lifts Jack out of the highchair.

“We took Mary when she was about their age. She loved it.” 

“Yeah, but you just had one baby” Dean points out while he settles Clair against his hip. The baby reaches up to grab his nose and squeals with laughter when he gives her little hand a loud kiss. 

“Fair point, but Dean, it’s their first christmas. They have to meet Santa.” They walk into the living room and settle the babies on the floor with some toys then Dean pulls out a laundry basket and starts folding. 

“We can make it a whole family thing with all three kids” Sam adds. 

“I’ll talk to Cas about it” Dean relents.

“Talk to me about what?” Cas asks as he walks into the room. He bends down and presses a kiss to the top of each baby’s head and then walks over and gives Dean a peck. 

“Sam wants to do a family outing with the kids next weekend to go see Santa.” Dean smiles at his husband. “

“Oh, that might be fun. Did you have any place in mind?” Cas asks Sam.

“Well there's the one at the mall, or if we want to go a little farther there’s the christmas village they set up in Grantsville every year.”

“Don’t they do a light show in the christmas village on the weekends too?” Cas asks while he takes a seat next to Dean and helps with the laundry.

“Yeah, they do. We could see Santa, then grab dinner and check out the light show.” Sam suggests and Cas agrees. They chat for a while and then Sam leaves to pick up Eileen and Mary from the airport. They’d gone to visit some of Eileen's relatives in Milwaukee and Sam had to stay behind when one of his clients got arrested for trespassing. His court date was set the following week.

“Wave bye bye to uncle Sam” Cas told the twins and they both waved their little arms excitedly.

“I’ll see you guys next weekend” Sam waved back and then disappeared out the door. 

“You sure about this whole Santa thing?” Dean asked after his brother was gone. Cas gave him a confused look.

“Why wouldn’t I be sure about it?”

“I don’t know, don’t you think they might be a little young?”

“No” Cas shakes his head. 

“And you’re ok with just handing our babies over to a complete stranger?” Dean looks a little agitated. 

“Dean, we’ll be right there the whole time and the Santas at those places have to go through training and background checks.” Cas tries to reassure him but Dean still looks wary. 

“But what if he drops them? Clair can be quite a handful and if Jack is in one of his moods he’ll do that thing where he suddenly goes boneless. I’ve almost dropped him a few times when he’s done that because I wasn’t expecting it.”

“Dean the Santa has probably dealt with lots of boneless children. It’s actually a pretty common malady in young children” Cas quips and Dean gives him an unamused look.

“Like I said, we will be right there the whole time. They won’t be in any danger.” Cas rubs a soothing hand against his husband’s shoulder and gives him a kiss on the cheek. 

“Yeah, I guess,” Dean grumbles but he doesn’t sound at all convinced.

“Is that your only concern?” Cas asks.

“What if it scares them?” Dean says in a small voice and Cas looks at him perplexed. 

“Why would they be scared of Santa?”

“Because he’s a big guy with most of his face covered in hair and he wears a lot of red.” Dean says as if it should be obvious why any child would be afraid of Santa. 

“Dean, are you afraid of Santa?” Cas tries to hide his smile. His big tough husband, afraid of Santa Claus. 

“No” Dean scoffs. Cas raises a questioning eyebrow. 

“I’m not afraid of Santa but Sam was when he was little. Like deathly afraid. He’d scream his head off. I don’t want our children to face that kind of fear at such a young age.”

“I see where you’re coming from. It’s not uncommon for young children to be afraid of Santa but Dean, we can’t shield them from everything. They might even like Santa but we’ll never know if we don’t let them have the experience.”

“I know, I know. I just-- I’d never forgive myself if I allowed them to do this and it ended up scaring them for life, ya know” Dean sighs. 

“They won’t be scarred for life, even if it does scare them. They’re eight months old. They won’t even remember this.”

“Then why are we doing it?” Dean argues. 

“Because we’ll remember and hopefully we’ll get some cute pictures out of it. It is our first Christmas with them. Don’t you want to have the whole christmas experience?” 

Dean shrugs, “Maybe.”

“Alright, then it’s settled. We’ll go see Santa next weekend.”  
\-------------------

The next Saturday rolls around soon enough and Sam and Eileen show up with their little one in tow, ready to go meet Santa. Mary bounces over to her cousins singing a garbled version of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and the babies giggle at her from where they’re strapped into their carseats. 

“Let's get this show on the road.” Dean grips the handles of the carseats and carries them out to Cas’ Highlander. It’s not as cool as his baby but the older car just isn’t ideal for small children. Plus the carseats leave dents in the leather seats. Once the children are all strapped in they head off. Cas plays christmas music and sings along, glancing every now and then in the rearview mirror. He has mirrors strapped to the headrests of the back seats so he can see into the rear facing carseats. The babies are kicking their legs to the music and they can hear their high pitched squeals of excitement. Dean grins and rests his hand against Cas’ thigh while he drives. His fears haven’t abated much but he’s doing his best to push them down and enjoy the day. He’d even dressed the kids up in matching outfits for the occasion.

The parking lot is packed when they get there and they’re lucky enough to find a couple of open spots. The place looks like a winter wonderland with people dressed as elves walking around and a massive tree lit up in the center. They even have live reindeer. Mary is the one to spot Santa first.

“Santa!” She shrieks and points at a man in a Santa costume sitting in a large comfortable looking chair, surrounded by children. He waves the children closer and motions for them all to sit down. The winchester’s make their way over to the crowd to see what’s happening. When they get closer they see a large plush rug in front of Santa’s chair. Mary drags Sam closer and they can hear Santa telling all the children they can sit on the rug while he reads them a story. Then he tells the parents that they’re welcome to sit or stand in the back but the close spots are just for children. Mary looks at her father with pleading eyes.

“You can go find a place on the rug. Mommy and I will just be back here with uncle Dean and uncle Cas.” She runs over to an open space and plops down. 

Once all the children are settled one of Santa’s elves hands him a large picture book and he starts reading the story to the children. 

“Where do you even get a book that big?” Dean leans over and asks Sam who just shrugs.

“Probably custom made” he guesses. 

While they listen to the story an elf walks to the group of parents with a signup sheet. She has them put their children’s names on the list if they want to have a picture with Santa and informs them that Santa will call each child up one at a time to take pictures. Eileen puts Mary’s name on the list and then hands it to Cas so he can jot down Jack and Clair’s names. After the story is finished Santa tells the children to wait on the rug until their name is called and Dean is surprised by how well they all listen. Dean sees the elf with the signup sheet walk over to whisper the first name into Santa’s ear, and he calls out the child’s name. 

When Mary’s turn rolls around she bounces up to Santa with a huge grin on her face and climbs up onto his lap. Eileen pulls out her camera and starts snapping pictures. 

“Well hello Mary, are you having a fun day my dear?” Santa asks her.

“Yes” She beams at him. 

“Wonderful! Who are you here with?” he asks her and she points over at her parents. 

“Mommy and daddy and uncle Cas and uncle Dean and my dudes.” Ever since the twins were born Mary has referred to them as her dudes or baby dudes. Nobody knows how she came up with that but they suspect Charlie had something to do with it. 

“Oh how lovely, you came with all those people. Are your dudes going to get a picture with Santa too?” She nods enthusiastically. 

“I can’t wait to meet them but before that why don’t you tell me what you want for christmas this year.” Santa gives her a cheerful smile. 

“I want an elsa doll and a princess bike and for the new baby to not be a boy.” She tells him seriously. 

“Is your family getting a new baby?” Santa asks her excitedly.

“Yes. Mommy said we’re getting a baby brother, but I don’t want a brother, I want a sister. So the new baby can’t be a boy.” Eileen shakes her head at her daughter's grievance and when Santa gives her a slightly panicked look she just shrugs. 

“Well I’ll have to see what I can do.” Sanat gives her the most diplomatic answer he can think of and then asks if they want a picture of all three children on his lap. Eileen says yes and Santa shifts Mary over to one side and waves Cas and Dean forward. Cas settles Clair next to Mary on Santa’s left knee and Dean reluctantly places Jack on his right knee. Mary beams at the camera while Clair tries to twist around to grab Santa's beard. Jack just stares up at the jolly man with wide curious eyes and points at his hat. Santa takes off the hat and settles it on the boy’s head and Eileen is able to snap a picture of it before Jack pulls it off and looks at it. The elf whispers in Santa’s ear Clair and Jack’s names and Eileen motions for Mary to hop down so her cousins can have their turn with Santa. 

“Hello Jack and Clair.” Santa smiles at the wiggling babies in his arms. 

Jack still has his hat balled up in two tiny fists and he’s giggling at it. Clair has managed to squirm around enough to get a firm grip on Santa’s beard. Santa gently pries her fingers loose and tries to shift her so she’s facing the camera and then Jack throws his hat. The elf picks it up and hands it back to him and he promptly drops it again and they repeat the action. Dean hovers a few feet away nervously. Every time Jack drops the hat he lunges forward to get it and Dean’s worried that he’s going to fall but Santa seems to have a pretty good hold on him and every time he lunges for the hat Sant’s hold tightens slightly to keep him from falling. Eileen is able to snap a few more pictures before Clair’s eyes zero in on her dad and she tries to lung for him. Santa catches her before she falls and Dean’s anxiety finally wins and he rushes over to scoop her up. Cas collects Jack and then tells the children to wave goodbye to Santa. He thanks them for visiting and then calls the next child up.

Eileen lets them scroll through the pictures on her camera while they wait for their food to arrive and they discuss their plans for the rest of the evening. 

“Will you send us copies of these?” Cas asks as he hands her camera back.

“Of course.”

“Was it as bad as you thought it was going to be?” Sam teases his brother.

“No” Dean grumbles. He was actually impressed with the fake Santa. The guy really had a way with kids and he was able to handle both babies with ease. 

“We should come back next year.” Cas says and Eileen nods her agreement. 

“They really know what they’re doing here and the kids loved it” she says. 

\--------------

They do go back the next year and Sam’s son screams his head off when he sees Santa.


	7. December 7th

“I think I may have found us a case” Sam is scrolling through his tablet when Dean enters the room with some sandwiches and beers. He sets them on the table in front of Sam and leans over his shoulder to look at the screen.

“Oh yeah?” 

“Yeah, in Spokane Washington a guy was found frozen to death in his living room.”

“And?” Dean takes a bite of his sandwich. “Hypothermia isn’t really an unusual way to die.”

“He was frozen solid in a room with a fire burning in the fireplace and a heater that was working just fine. His kids found him in the morning when they woke up.”

“So why are the kids fine but the dad’s a human popsicle?” 

“I don’t know, but I think we should check it out.”

They hit the road an hour later. 

“So what do we know about this guy?” Dean asks as they drive. 

“Not much, he doesn’t have much of a social media presence and the articles I could find online were pretty sparse. From what I’ve gathered, he’s a fifty year old widow with two kids and a dog. He worked at a dealership for twenty years and he liked to golf.” Sam scrolls through the guys social media accounts and then scrolls through his kids.

“What happened to the wife?” Dean asks.

“Um, cancer, back in October. Poor kids, first their mom and now their dad” 

\------------------

At the morgue they do the whole fed charade and are quickly escorted to the body.

“This is a weird one.” The coroner says as he pulls back the sheet. The body is still in a seated position, laying on its side.

“Uh why is he blue?” Dean asks.

“I have no idea, I would take a tissue sample and run a toxicology report on it but he’s still frozen. I’ll have to wait till he thaws.” Sam pulls on a glove and gently prods at the dead guy's hand. He pulls his hand back, startled at how cold it feels. 

“How long has he been here?” He asks.

“Two days.” The coroner tells them.

“And in all that time he hasn’t warmed up at all?” Dean asks. The coroner shakes his head. “Huh” 

“Thanks for your time, please let us know if you’re able to do any tests.” Sam says and hands the man a business card with his fake name and phone number on it. 

They leave the morgue and head to the guys house to see if they can talk to his children.

“Was there anything unusual that morning?” Sam asks the two teenagers in front of him. The boy scoffs. 

“You mean other than our dad’s dead body?” The kid asks and his sister, Amber, shoots him a withering look.

“Not really. I woke up and I could hear Christmas music downstairs and I went down to see if breakfast was ready.” The girl informs him. “Dad likes to play christmas music in the mornings while he cooks breakfast.” She said with a wistful smile. 

“Not this year though, not after--” Her brother cuts in and then stops to let out a shaky breath.”After mom.” He says once he’s composed himself.

“Yeah she loved christmas and we had a family tradition during the whole month of December, where they would play loud christmas music on sunday mornings and cook breakfast together. So when I got up that morning and heard the music I thought it was because dad was trying to keep our tradition alive to honour mom. But when I came down stairs he was...ya know?” She gestures vaguely and Sam gets what she means. 

“And there was nothing else weird about that morning? Any strange smells? Was it cold in the room?” Dean asks.

“No, it was actually pretty warm in the room with the fire going.”

Sam walks over to the record player in the corner of the room and gives it a cursory once over. It looks antique and he notices some symbols carved into the wood. 

“Was this playing when you came downstairs or did he have music playing on a different device?” he points to the record player.

“Um, yeah he was listening to that record.” The boy tells him “Why is that important.” 

“Oh, um, it’s probably not, just covering my bases” Sam informs him “I think that’s all the questions we have for you at this time. Just give us a call if you think of anything else.” He hands them a business card and they leave.

“So, what are you thinking?” Dean asks as they get in the car.

“I think that record player is cursed. There were strange symbols carved into it and you wanna take a guess what record was playing?” Sam asks. 

“Rudolph got run over by a reindeer?” Dean guesses and Sam isn’t sure if he really thinks that’s a song or if he’s trying to make a joke.

“Uh, no. Blue Christmas.”

“Elvis?” Sam nods “Blue Christmas, blue dead guy, could be a coincidence but we should check out that record player later tonight.” 

They head back to their motel to do some research on cursed or haunted record players but come up empty. Sam sighs and puts his tablet away in defeat. He’d even tried searching for the symbols he’d seen but they too were a dead end. 

“I’ve got nothing” he looks over at his brother hoping he might have found something but Dean just groans and echoes his words. 

“You wanna grab dinner?” Dean stands up and pats down his pockets to make sure he has his keys and wallet in a way that says ‘I’m going to go get food so decide now if you want to come along’ and then Sam’s phone rings.

“Agent Masser” Sam answers and then after a short conversation hangs up. “Sorry man, you're gonna have to wait, they've got another body.” He tells Dean who sighs dramatically.

“Frozen?” 

“Not this time. Apparently this woman cut out her own heart and tried to give it to this guy she’d been dating.” 

“Cut out her own heart?” Dean gives him a disgusted look. “And she was still walking and talking enough afterward to try and give it to some guy?”

“According to the witness, yeah.” Sam nods “He said after she handed it to him he freaked out and dropped it and then she collapsed. She was dead when the paramedics got there.”

“Well you know what this means?”

“It’s probably not the record player” Sam finishes Dean’s thought. 

When they get to the scene there’s a bloodied sheet over the woman’s body. She’s laying on the threshold of her boyfriend's house and there's a photographer taking pictures of her heart laying a few feet away. The boyfriend in question is sitting in his kitchen with a few police officers and Sam flashes his badge at them, asking if he and his partner can have a moment with the witness. The officers leave and Sam and Dean sit down at the table.

“Ok Mr. Bradford can you tell us what happened?”

“I already talked to those other officers.” 

“I know but we’re with the FBI and we’d really like to hear it from you instead of read it in a report. Plus there might be something you missed, we’re just being thorough.”

“Ok, um, there was a knock at my door and when I opened it I saw Nancy just… standing there holding something in her hand. It was red and dripping blood and it kept moving. I didn’t realise what it was until it was in my hand. And I could have swore it was still beating.” He shudders a little. “I mean, how is that even possible? How was she even standing there with that gaping hole in her chest?” The man asks, clearly in shock.

“The human body is capable of a lot more than we know. Sometimes things like this just can’t be explained.” Sam tries to reassure him but it falls on deaf ears.

“And that stupid song kept playing from her phone. I couldn’t get it to turn off.” Bradford continues on despite Sam’s words. 

“What song?”

“Last Christmas” he says with a shudder. “I can’t get it out of my head.” Sam looks at Dean who shrugs, neither of them know what song he’s talking about but they don’t ask. 

Sam plays the song on his phone after they leave and Dean grimaces at the lyrics.

“So vic one listens to Blue Christmas and turns blue, vic two listens to a song about giving someone your heart and has the sudden urge to, literally, give her heart to someone?” 

“It’s too much of a coincidence for it to not be related. But we already determined that it’s not the record player. What else could it be?”

“A demon with horrible taste in music?” Dean guesses. 

They pull into the motel parking lot and are immediately on high alert. A large group of people are standing in the parking lot outside of one of the rooms while the manager is desperately trying to get the door open. As they get closer they can see a figure through the window. It’s a man and he’s banging on the glass frantically and they can see what looks like a mountain of snow up to his armpits. They immediately jump into action and push the manager aside to kick down the door but the damn thing won’t budge. After a few more tries Dean gives up on that idea and pulls out his gun. He gestures to the man in the room to duck and then takes aim at the glass over just to his left. The window shatters and snow pours out onto the walkway. The man is still mostly buried in the snow and a couple of the onlookers reach in to help dig him out. He’s got glass shards all around him and a few superficial cuts to his face and hands but other than that he seems to be ok, if a little shook up. 

“Dean” Sam says and points into the room. They both look through the window and see snow falling from seemingly nowhere. Then they hear the song Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow coming from somewhere in the room. It's just a faint muffled sound but Sam is able to pick out the lyrics. 

“So, someone or something is using Christmas songs to kill people?” Dean asks around a mouth full of food a while later. 

“That's what it looks like,” Sam nods. “Think it could be a witch?”

“Probably. We should head back to the other crime scenes and see if we can find any hex bags.” 

\-----------------

Later that night they go back to the first victim’s house and they do find a hex bag in the record player. They search the second victim's house but don’t find anything until Sam remembers that her boyfriend said the music was playing on her phone so they break into the evidence locker at the police station and find one in her purse. It takes them considerably longer to shovel enough snow out of the third victim’s room so they can get to the alarm clock. Sam pops the battery out and finds the hex bag stuffed inside the clock. After that they go through each victim's lives with a fine toothed comb to try and find any connection but they’re unable to find any leads. 

“Ok so vics one and two live in the same town and they both went to the same therapist but vic three is from the next town over. He’s not connected to the other two at all.” 

“I guess it’s time for a little family therapy.” Dean grins at his own joke and Sam rolls his eyes. 

The therapist turns out to be legit and it feels like they’re back at square one. They head to the hospital in hopes of getting more information from the third victim but when they get there they find the guy dead in the middle of the parking garage. He looks like he’s been trampled by something with hooves. 

“How much you wanna bet that those hoof prints came from a reindeer?” Dean whispers to Sam while the police tape off the area and collect evidence. All the cars in the area are on and they’re all blasting Run Rudolph Run by Chuck Berry. 

“We gotta find this witch before another person ends up dead.”

Dean looks around the parking garage and then suddenly smiles and points up. Sam follows his gaze and catches sight of a surveillance camera. 

“That looks like a good place to start.” They head inside the hospital and ask for directions to the security office. After another flash of their badges the head security guard lets them into the surveillance room and they play back the tapes for the parking garage and they see the guy run past a few cameras, he keeps looking behind him but the cameras don’t show what he’s running from and then suddenly he’s on the ground being stopped to a pult by something invisible. 

“There” Dean points to the corner of one of the screens where a figure is crouched behind a hatchback. “Look familiar?” Dean asks Sam.

“That’s the receptionist from the therapist office.” 

“How much you wanna bet she’s our witch?” They thank the guy and then head back to the therapist. 

It’s ridiculously easy to tail the receptionist after she leaves work that evening. They corner her in her apartment and as soon as she knows there’s no way out she decides to end it on her own terms. She charges at Sam with a dagger and Dean shoots her before she can get to him. They take her body out into the woods and burn it and then go back to their room to catch a couple hours sleep before they have to drive back home.

“Ok, so we know where she ran into the first to vics but what about that last guy? What was the connection there?” Sam asks the next morning while they’re packing up their stuff. Dean just shrugs.

“I don’t know Sammy, she was just some psycho with magical abilities. She could have chosen him at random or maybe they met somewhere else.”

“Maybe.” Sam says but he still sounds unsure.

“Doesn’t matter now anyway, she’s dead and she can’t hurt anyone else.” Dean pats him on the shoulder and then carries his bag out to the car. Sam follows him and when Dean starts the car the radio starts playing Deck The Halls and Sam quickly changes the station. Dean just smirks at him and they head back to the bunker.


	8. December 8th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short but sweet kid fic.

“I’m bored” Sam whines as soon as John leaves the room. They’re in some little podunk town in Montana and John left Dean in charge of his little brother while he went out to track down a lead. Dean grumbled at being left to watch Sam but John just gave him a stern look and told him to keep the doors and windows locked and to not let Sam out of his sight.

Dean walks over to the tv and switches it on and is pleased to find that A Charlie Brown Christmas is playing. 

“Look, you can watch cartoons.” He tells Sam and then goes back to sharpening his pocket knife. Sam folds his arms across his chest and pouts, refusing to even look at the tv.

“I don’t like Charlie Brown” Sam grumbles but Dean ignores him.

“I wanna go play outside” he whines a few seconds later when he sees that Dean isn’t about to give in. 

“Dad said we have to stay here.” Dean tries to reason with him but at seven years old Sam has recently entered a bratty phase. 

“Can’t we just go play in the snow for a minute?” Sam wheedles and gives his brother the biggest puppy eyes he can muster.

“We’ll get in trouble” Dean sighs. What he really means Is ‘I’ll get in trouble’ because John never got mad at Sam for anything. Dean was older so Sam was his responsibility, which meant he took the blame for any misbehaviour. 

“You’re just being mean” Sam pouts again and Dean sighs. He’s not being mean, he’s being responsible. 

Sam spends the next twenty minutes stubbornly sitting on his bed and facing the wall. He’s doing it in hopes that it’ll make Dean feel bad about not letting him play outside. 

It works. 

“Come on’ Dean sighs and he turns off the tv. Sam bounces off the bed excitedly and quickly stuffs his feet in his boots, almost tripping in his haste. Dean grabs a roll of duct tape and a couple trash bags and then helps him into his coat and gloves and then they go outside. 

“What are we doing?” Sam asks excitedly and Dean leads him to the dumpster behind the motel. 

“We need a large box.” He says and peers inside the dumpster. He doesn’t find any boxes big enough in there so he grabs Sam's hand and they walk to the diner across the street to see if there are any boxes there. Dean cheers when he looks in and sees a dry, medium sized box right on top. It’s a little smaller than Dean wanted but it’ll do.

“What are we doing?” Sam asks as he watches Dean flatten the box and then put it inside one of the garbage bags. 

“You’ll see,” Dean says and tapes the bag closed around the box. Then he grabs Sam’s hand again and walks him to the park they’d passed on their way to the motel.

Dean leads Sam to the top of a small hill and then places the box on the ground.

“Are we going to use it as a sled?” Sam looks at his brother with wonder.

“That’s the plan. Hop on.” Dean holds it still while his brother gets settled on it. Then Dean gives him a little push and he flies down the hill with a whoop of excitement. 

“That was so fun!” Sam yells as he runs up the hill. He hands the makeshift sled to Dean and tells him he can have a turn. 

They spend the next couple hours with their diy sled, they do have to replace the trash bag when the first one rips but other than that it works pretty well. After they get bored of sledding they have a snowball fight and then Sam tries to make a snow man. It ends up looking more like a snow blob with one eye and a gaping hoal in its side but Dean lies and tells him it looks great. 

Sam pouts a little when Dean tells him it’s time to go back inside but Dean promises him that they can get hot chocolate from the gas station across the street and some candy bars so he agrees. 

Later that night after Sammy is tucked in and fast asleep Dean gets rid of the candy wrappers and their sled before John gets back. He knows he disobeyed a direct order from his father but he’d do it again in a heartbeat if Sammy asked him to.


	9. December 9th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a cute little Jack and Cas moment.

Sam and Dean were out on a hunt and they’d left Cas and Jack behind to ‘hold down the fort’ as Dean put it. Cas just squinted at him but didn’t ask, he’d learned that when Dean said things like that it was usually some common human phrase.

“We’re in a bunker not a fort.” Jack, on the other hand, has not figured this out so he’d corrected Dean. 

“Yeah, I know that. It’s just a saying kid. Just keep an eye on things around here will ya?” Dean grumbled and then he and Sam left. 

After a few hours of research Cas closed the laptop and looked at Jack. The kid’s nose was buried so deep in a book Cas wondered if he’d found the secret to life, or something of great importance. 

He hadn’t.

He’d actually fallen asleep and he jumped when Cas said his name, dropping the book on the floor with a thud.

“I think we’ve done enough research for now. What do you say we go out for a little bit?” Cas asked.

“And do what?”

“I heard about this light show a couple towns over and I thought it might be fun.” Cas said hesitantly, suddenly hyper aware of the fact that Jack wasn’t a normal toddler and would probably not be interested in a light show

“What’s a light show?” Jack asked and Can was hit with yet another realization. Jack may not be a normal toddler but he was still a new human and, while he could walk and talk and kill a man without breaking a sweat, he was just a kid.

“Come on I’ll explain in the car.”

\--------------------

They pull off the highway when they see the large sign lit up with christmas lights and an arrow pointing to the ticket booth for the light show. Cas drives up to the booth and a small woman leans out and gives him a cheery smile.

“Good evening, how are you guys tonight?” She asks.

“We’re good,” comes the automatic response.

“Wonderful! Have you been here before?”

“Um no, we’re new to the area and our neighbor told me about it. I thought it might be fun to check out.” Cas chats with the woman easily and Jack’s phone starts ringing. He gets a big smile on his face when his screen lights up with Dean’s name and he answers excitedly.

“Hey Dean! We’re at a light show!” The woman in the booth smiles at Jack and then tells Cas that they need to stay in their vehicle the whole time and follow the arrows and then she tells him what station to turn the radio to. He nods at her instructions and hands her money for the entrance fee, then he follows the line of cars as they slowly drive through the elaborate set up.

“Look Cas, it's a dragon!” Jack shouts and points at a large dragon to the left, the radio plays music and sound effects as the lights flicker and change to make it look like the dragon is moving and then suddenly fire shoots out if it’s mouth.

“That’s so awesome!” Jack exclaimed and Cas can hear Dean’s muffled voice coming from the boy’s forgotten phone. 

“Where the hell are you?” The small voice bellows. Cas grabs Jack's phone and hits the speaker icon. 

“Dean the dragon shoots fire out of his mouth!” Jack says in awe. 

“What dragon?” Dean sounds less excited and more frantic. 

“The one at the light show” Jack tells him as if it’s obvious.

“What light show?” 

“The light show Tammy was telling us about the other day while we were doing our supply run.” Cas explains.

“Tammy? The cashier at the Safeway?” 

“Yes” Cas nods even though Dean can’t see him. 

“Oh, ok.” There’s a pause and Dean can hear the cheerful christmas music from the other end of the line before he asks. “So how is it?”

“Awesome!” Jack informs him and then launches in a detailed description of how the lights are timed to the music and the Santa that appears to be flying around them. 

“Cool, I’m glad you’re enjoying it kid.” There’s a smile in his voice that Cas can hear and it makes him smile. 

“How’s your hunt going?” He asks, just realizing that Dean probably called for a reason.

“We’re done actually. When we got there Daniel, that hunter we met in tulsa a couple years back, he was already there, He’d caught wind of it the same time we did but he was closer so he beat us to the punch. We decided to just turn around and head back home. I was actually calling to see if Jack wanted anything from the burger place in town. Figured we stop on the way back but if you guys are out we can just get something for the two of us and head back to the bunker.” 

“That’s probably for the best. We won’t be back for a couple hours and a burger would get cold in that time” Cas reasons. 

“Yeah, and they don’t heat up in the microwave very well.” Dean agrees lamely. “I’ll let you get back to your light show.” He mumbles awkwardly and they trade short goodbyes. 

“We should come back tomorrow with Sam and Dean.” Jack beams and Cas agrees easily.

“We should. I think they’d like it.”


	10. December 10th

Clair was almost asleep when she heard the unmistakable sound of bells coming from outside. At first she thought it might be her papa coming home from the hospital but then she remembered him saying he wouldn’t be home until way after bedtime. Then it hit her.

“Santa!” 

She threw her hand over her mouth and held as still as she could, listening. There was a rustling down stairs and she could hear the sound of boots thudding against the floor. She silently crept out of bed and tiptoed to the landing above the stairs. When she peaked around the corner she saw her dad walk past, he was already in his pajamas and he was sneaking some of Santa’s cookies. She was about to bust him for it but someone else beat her to it.

“Are you stealing some of my cookies.” The jolly, yet slightly familiar, voice asked and her dad quickly dropped the cookie he was holding. He turned to the owner of the voice, someone Clair couldn’t see, and gave a smirk. 

“Maybe” he said with a grin. Clair wanted to face palm. Her dad was gonna be in so much trouble with Santa. 

Clair watched as a man dressed in a red suit and hat came into view and walked right up to her dad. She quickly stifled her squeal with her hand and hoped the grownups hadn’t heard the slight squeak that escaped. She did not want to be put on the naughty list for being out of bed after bedtime or for spying on Santa. They didn’t look in her direction so she figured she was in the clear. 

“Dean Winchester, stealing Santa’s cookies?” Santa tsked, “I might just have to put your name on the naughty list. And you were so close this year” Santa shook his head mournfully.

“What if I make it up to you?” He placed his palms against Santa’s chest and ran them up and down flirtatiously. Clair narrowed her eyes. She’d seen her dad do the same thing to her papa when he wanted to get away with something papa didn’t like. 

“Oh, what did you have in mind?” Santa put his hands on her dad’s waste and Clair glaired. 

“I can think of a few things.” He pulled the other man close and pressed their lips together for a long moment then he pulled back with a laugh and scratched at Santa’s beard “Tickles.” Santa laughed too and pulled him in for another kiss. 

Clair watched in horror as her dad kissed Santa. How could he do that to papa? Clair felt a tear slide down her face and she pictured what next christmas would be like with her parents divorced. She silently crept back to her room and into bed. She stayed awake for a long time wondering if she should tell papa what she saw or if she should confront her dad and make him tell papa. Neither option sounded particularly good and she soon fell into a fitful sleep. 

In the morning she was bounced awake by her little brother jumping on her bed.

“Christmas Clair, it’s christmas. Santa came and we have presents. Come on.” He bounced excitedly on her bed and tried to pull her up. 

“Go away Jack” she grumbled and pulled her comforter over her face. She didn’t want to see any of the presents that man brought and she definitely didn’t want to see dad. 

“Come on!” Jack pulled at her blankets and she tried to shove him away. That’s when her papa poked his head in the door and asked if everything was ok. 

“Clair won’t get out of bed, and I want to open presets. Papa, tell her it’s time to get up” Jack whined. 

“Jack, why don’t you go help daddy with breakfast and Clair and I will meet you downstairs in a minute.” Cas plucked the boy off the bed and set him on his feet in the doorway. He gave him a light swat on the bottom to get him moving then he turned to the sullen little girl hiding under her covers. 

“What’s up honey bee?” He sits on her bed and gently pulls back the blanket. 

“I just don’t want to open presents right now papa.” 

“Do you feel sick?” He places the back of his hand against her forehead and then gently prods at the glands in her neck to see if they’re swollen. She brushes his hands away and shakes her head. 

“Did you have a nightmare last night?” He guesses and she gives a slight nod. She feels bad for not being completely honest but it’s close enough to the truth. He holds his arms out to her, silently asking if she needs a hug and she realises she does. 

“Do you wanna tell me about it?” He asks after she’s climbed into his lap and snuggled against his chest. She deliberates for a moment and then shakes her head. 

“Daddy’s making waffles and scrambled eggs. What do you say we go have some breakfast and then maybe you’ll feel a little better.” She reluctantly agrees but she clings to her papas hand like it's a lifeline the whole way to the kitchen. He periodically gives her worried glances but she’s not meeting his eyes. 

Clair settles in at the table next to her brother who already has a waffle cut up on his plate, drenched in syrup and whipped cream. He grins at her around a mouth full of food, and he’s got a chocolate milk mustache. She scowles right back. 

“Morning Clair bear. You ready for waffles?” Her dad smiles as he slides a waffle on the plate in front of her. She glares at him and doesn’t answer. He looks at Cas for an answer to the sour mood but Cas just shrugs. 

“Are we excited to see what Santa brought?” Cas asks in hopes of dispelling the tension. 

“Yeah!” Jack shouts and bits of egg fly out of his mouth.

“Whatever.” Clair grumbles and stabs at her food aggressively. Dean and Cas share a look.

“Clair what’s wrong?” Dean reaches over to put a hand on the girl’s shoulder and she shrugs him off. He looks back at his husband, hurt clearly evident in his eyes.

“Clair honey, are you having a bad morning?” He tries again and she shoots him a scathing look. 

“No” She pushes her plate away and folds her arms. 

“Clair I’m not liking this attitude. If there’s something bothering you please use your words.” Cas steps in with his no nonsense dad voice. Clair looks at him with tears brimming in her eyes.

“If I tell you then you’ll be upset and we’ll have to live in two houses and we won’t have christmas together ever again and--and I hate Santa!” She sobs and buries her face in her arms. Her parents and little brother stare at her in shock. 

“What?” Dean asks.

“Clair honey, what are you talking about? Why would we live in different houses?” Cas crouches next to her chair and tries to coax her into looking at him.

“You hate Santa?” Jack asks in disbelief. 

“Clair” Cas says gently and she lifts her head to look at him, tears streaming down her face. “I won’t be upset, just please explain.” He rubs soothing circles in hir back. She glances at Dean equal parts nervous and furious. 

“Daddy kissed Santa last night when he thought I was in bed and now you’re gonna get divorced like Katie’s parents and we’ll have to live in separate houses.” She sniffles.

After several seconds of shocked silence Cas pulls her into a tight hug, barely able to stifle the grin that’s spreading across his face when he looks at his husband's slack jawed expression. 

“Clair we’re not getting a divorce.” he reassures her at the same time Jack looks at his dad and says “You kissed Santa?” In disgust. Dean flounders trying to think of anything to say.

“No, daddy did not kiss Santa,” Cas answers for him.

“Yes he did, I saw him!” Clair states vehemently and pulls away from her father to glare at them both. 

“Clair, remember how I was working late at the hospital last night?” Cas asks her gently. She nods.

“And remember how we talked about the Santa’s at the mall not being the real Santa but helpers that dressed up like Santa to talk to little boys and girls because Santa is so busy getting ready?” He asks and she nods again.

“Well last night the helper Santa that was supposed to come to the hospital had to cancel because he got the flu. So Becky asked if I would wear the Santa suit and be the helper.” Cas explains gently. 

“I wore the suit home because I thought daddy would think it was funny to see me with a big fluffy belly and a white beard. He kissed me last night, not the real Santa. The real Santa didn’t come until we were all in bed.” She looks between both her fathers and Dean nods enthusiastically to everything Cas says. 

“You’re not getting divorced?” She asks in a small voice.

“No, honey.” Cas says at the same time Dean says “Never.” She pauses a beat while she considers everything she’s heard and then she shrugs.

“Ok!” She grabs her fork and stuffs a large piece of syrupy waffle in her mouth. And just like that her bad mood is gone. 

“Ok” Dean says hesitantly and looks at his husband a little confused. Cas just smiles.

“Ok.”

“Can we open presents now?” Jack whines. He’s clearly waited long enough.

“Yeah we can open presents now.” Dean ruffles the boys hair and they all make their way to the tree

“Should we be mad about her getting out of bed and spying on us after bedtime.” Dean whispers while the kids rip into their presents. He’s got his arms around Cas’ waste from behind and his chin resting on his shoulder. 

“Nah, I think she learned her lesson. I’m just glad that was all she saw.” Cas gives him a heated stare and they both remember how quickly that Santa suit was discarded after that kiss. Dean presses a chast kiss behind his ear. 

“You and me both.” 

“Daddy look! It’s a blue lightsaber!” Jack yells excitedly and waves it around making his own sound effects. 

“That’s so cool buddy.” Dean releases his husband and goes over to get a closer look at the new toy. He finds a button that turns it on and the room is filled with lightsaber sounds. 

“Cool!” Jack swings it around even more and narrowly misses wacking his sister. 

“Careful!” Cas admonishes but no one is paying attention. He sighs and decides to not make a big deal out of it. They've already had quite the morning and all he wants to do is enjoy his family. Dea smiles at him over the boy’s head and they share a moment of happiness as they watch their children.


	11. December 11th

Sam groaned inwardly as he made his fifteenth peppermint mocha that morning. He’d only been at work for an hour and in addition to the peppermint mochas he'd had to make five peppermint hot chocolates and three eggnog lattes and it was just the first week of December. When he’d started working at the coffee shop near campus last October, he laughed at all of his new coworkers complaining about all the pumpkin spice flavored drinks and pastries. He kinda liked pumpkin spice so he didn’t see it as a problem. That is, until December rolled around and suddenly everything was peppermint and eggnog. He could excuse the eggnog but he absolutely hated peppermint and he’d go home every day smelling like peppermint coffee. 

His coworker, Jessica, seemed to know how much he loathed peppermint and made it her mission in life to make him miserable. It was like she had a sixth sense for which customer would want peppermint whatever and then before they got to the register she’d somehow disappear, leaving him to take the order. 

“Oh, he’s back!” Charlie, his manager/ friend who got him the job, suddenly materializes by his side and Sam looks up to see who she’s talking about. It’s the guy that works in the admissions office at their university. He’s been coming in almost every morning for the past six months but he was mysteriously absent for several days. 

“Huh, wonder where he’s been.” Sam says to appease her. He really doesn’t care where the guy has been, he barely even knows him. If you can count knowing the guy’s regular coffee order and that he worked at the university as knowing him. Sam didn’t even know the guys first name; he always said ‘Novak’ when asked what name to put on his order. 

“Where is that useless brother of yours?” Charlie complaints. Sam looks up at her and sees her hang up and then redial Dean’s number. 

She’d been trying to get Dean and Novak in the same room for the past five months and it had never worked. Dean flat out refused to let her set him up with anyone so she’d resorted to deception to get him to the coffee shop whenever Novak was there but he’d either miss her call, or he’d answer and believe whatever bulshit reason she gave for needing him to come down to the shop right at that moment, and he’d end up walking in just moments after the other man had left. She’d even tried on multiple occasions to have him be in the coffee shop before Novak showed up, the guy stuck to a pretty regular schedule so they could normally anticipate when he’d show. But Dean had had to leave because of an emergency at work or with his roommate and one time he’d ran into a woman who spilled her coffee all over him and while he was in the bathroom cleaning up Novak came in and ordered his coffee and left. Charlie almost pulled out all of her hair on that day. 

“Pick up, pick up, pick up.” She chants quietly and watches as Novak gets closer and closer to the front of the line. 

Dean doesn’t pick up and while Charlie is having a meltdown over his uncooperative brother Sam finds himself suddenly taking over the cash register, again, because Jessica has disappeared in the back to get more straws. Just in time for the other source of Charlie’s annoyance to place his order. Sam’s ready to key in the man’s usual order when he hears his least favorite word come out of the guy’s mouth. 

“Peppermint hot chocolate. That actually sounds pretty good. I’ll take one of those.” He looks down from the menu hanging on the wall and makes eye contact with Sam, giving him a kind smile. Sam scowles back and aggressively pounds the order into the cash register. Novak’s smile falters and he looks around confused. Charlie elbows Sam in the side, hard, and he remembers that he’s at work so he plasters on a fake smile.

“That’ll be $3.75, Name?” He tries to be cheerful but it comes out a bit strained. 

“Novak,” the guy says and gives Sam an odd look. All of their previous interactions have been friendly so he couldn’t figure out what he had done to offend him. 

“I’ll have that out to you in just a moment.” Sam says and he turns to ask Charlie if she’ll make it but she has also disappeared. He makes the disgusting drink and hands it off to the guy, who gives him a quiet ‘thanks’ and then leaves. 

When Sam finally finds Charlie twenty minutes later she’s on the phone with his brother and she’s giving periodic sighs of understanding and the occasional ‘No way!’ or ‘He did what?’ When she sees Sam she switches the phone to speaker phone.

“Dean I’m putting you on speaker, Sam’s here.” 

“--No don’t put me on speaker! Charlie!” The last half of Dean’s sentence blares out of Charlie’s phone. 

“Tell Sam what that creep did.” Charlie says into the phone. 

“Charlie it’s not that important.” Dean tries to placate her but she shakes her head, even though he can’t see her.

“Not important? You took the morning off to look for a new apartment and you were so busy you couldn’t answer my calls earlier.”

“Why are you looking for a new apartment. Did Gordon kick you out?” Sam says over the end of Charlie’s sentence. 

“No he didn’t kick me out. I left.” Dean grumbles. 

“Care to elaborate?”

“I woke up at like two in the morning and found him hovering over me and taking pictures of me while I was asleep. So I did what anyone would do if they woke up to a dude looming over them with a camera. I punched him. Then I grabbed the camera to see what he was taking pictures of and found a lot of pictures of me. Mostly of me sleeping but there were a few of me just around the apartment and even one of me on the toilet. I don’t even know how he got that one.” 

“Dude that’s messed up.” Sam grimaces and Charlie nodes along, sharing his sentiments. Neither of them really liked Gordon but he and Dean had been assigned to the same dorm room their first year of college and they’d become friends so a couple years later when they decided to move out of the dorms they thought it would be more cost efficient if they just shared an apartment off campus. It had been going alright for nearly three years. At least Dean thought so, apparently he was wrong. 

“Please tell me you kept the camera and you didn’t delete any of the pictures.” Sam tells him.

“Why would I do that?” 

“So we can take them to the police and get a restraining order.” Sam says as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. And Dean has to admit that it does make sense. 

“Uh, I didn’t think of that.”

“I’ll come help you get your stuff and we’ll see if the camera is still there and if the pictures are still on it. Do you have a place to sleep tonight?” Sam asks.

“I’m crashing at a friends tonight so you don’t have to worry about it. And I’ve already got all my crap loaded in a uhaul. I just need to find a place.”

“How did you get it all packed up so fast? It’s barely even nine” Sam asks. 

“Like I said I’m crashing at a friend’s, he helped me get everything packed up yesterday.” Sam gives Charlie a confused look and she shrugs.

“I thought you said this happened this morning.” 

“No, yesterday morning. It happened yesterday morning.” Dean corrects. 

“And you waited until now to tell me. Actually you didn’t tell me, you told Charlie.” Sam says angrily. 

“Because I knew you’d get weird about it and you have that big important lawyer test coming up.”

“The LSAT?”

“Yeah that one. I was gonna wait and tell you after that was over because I didn’t want to stress you out.”

“Dean” Sam starts but Dean cuts him off.

“It’s fine Sammy. I blocked him on all social media and removed him from my contacts. He doesn’t even know where I’m staying and he won’t know where my new place is. If he bothers me at work Bobby will call the cops and we can see about a restraining order then. But I doubt he’s gonna be a problem anymore.” Dean tries to reassure him but Sam can think of plenty of other horrible things that could happen. Charlie points at her wrist and Sam nods.

“We’ll talk later, my break is over.” They all say their goodbyes and hang up.

\--------------

Dean spends the next couple days at his “friend’s” place but he won’t tell Sam much about this friend other than his name is Cas and they met a couple months ago. Sam tries to weedle more information out of him but Dean is suspiciously tight lipped on the matter. He finds a way to turn every conversation back on Sam and the LSAT and eventually Sam gives up. At least for the time being. 

Sam gets distracted with studying and work and before he knows it two weeks have gone by since the last time he spoke to Dean and he realises that he doesn't even know if Dean found a place to live or if he’s still couch hopping. His break starts in twenty minutes and he’s itching to call his brother. First to tell him that he’s taken the test and he’ll get his results in a few days and then to see where he’s living and if he needs help unpacking. The thought is barely formed when the man in question walks through the door. 

“Heya, Sammy.” Dean saunters up to the cash register, and winks at Jessica. Sam rolls his eyes.

“Is this the famous Dean I’ve heard so much about?” She asks.

“Famous huh?” He asks her. 

“Well Sam and Charlie never shut up about you.” She gives Sam a mischievous smile. “They’ve been trying to get you down here to meet a certain, tall, and handsome, customer.” Sam stares at her, mouth agape.

“I--I have not! That's all Charlie.” He splutters. 

“Oh they have, have they?” Dean says at the same time. Jessica nods solemnly. “Well, hate to burst your bubble dude, but I’m already seeing someone.”

“Since when?” 

“A couple months. I told you about him, remember?” Dean gives his brother a look like he’s lost his mind. “Speaking of, can I get a large coffee, black, and a peppermint hot chocolate?” He turns back to Jessica and she enters his order into the machine. She tells him the total and he swipes his card.

“Comin right up.” She beams at him and starts making his drinks. 

Sam stares at him until the transaction is done and then goes right back to interrogating him.

“You never told me you were seeing someone. What’s his name? How did you meet?” 

“I told you the last time we talked. Cas, we met a few months ago.” 

“You said he was a ‘friend’ Dean not that you were dating him.” And Dean has to admit that the first time he told Sam about Cas he had referred to him as a ‘friend’ but they’d talked a few times since then and he was pretty sure he mentioned at some point his and Cas’ relationship status. He was living with the guy for crying out loud. 

“Ok fair enough. I thought I’d told you already but I guess I didn’t.” Dean holds his hands up in surrender. “You’re on break soon right? Cause I kinda wanted you guys to meet.” He looks at his watch and then at the door. “He should be here soon. The door opens and a woman with a stroller glides in, followed by Novak.

At that moment Charlie comes out from the back room and spots Novak behind the woman and then Jessica calls Dean’s name for his order and her head whips around to see him standing on the other side of the counter. Her head swivels between Sam, Dean and Novak and she squeals. Like actually squeals in delight and runs over to Sam. 

“It’s happening, it’s finally happening.” She cheers and a few of the patrons turn to see what she’s going on about.

“Charlie” Sam tries to stop her but she’s not paying attention.

“I’ve waited months for this!” She squeals again and Novak walks right up to the counter and stands in Dean’s personal space. He gives Charlie and Sam a wary look and then turns to Dean.

“Hey babe, sorry I’m late. I got stuck talking to a coworker and lost track of time. Is your brother here yet?” Dean smiles at him and hands him the hot chocolate. 

“You’re like two minutes late Cas. I would have waited at least another five before I sent out a search party” He jokes and gives Cas a chast kiss. Charlie looks like she’s about to have a heart attack. Then Dean turns and gestures to Sam.

“This is my brother Sam and our friend Charle.” Sam stares at them gobsmacked and Charlie appears to be vibrating with pent up excitement. 

They’re all startled by a loud peal of laughter and they turn to see Jessica doubled over, holding her stomach. 

“This...whole time....you’ve...been trying….to...to...set him up....with his...his boyfriend!” She gasps between laughs. Sam cracks a smile and before he knows it he’s laughing with her.

Cas gives Dean a questioning look but Dean is just as confused. 

“You’re dating Novak!?” Charlie finally catches up with the program. “I’ve tried to get you two to meet for months and you’re already dating!” She yells at them. Cas shrinks back a bit and Dean holds up his hands in surrender.

“Calm down Red.”

“You wouldn’t let me set you up when I told you about him five months ago.” She points an accusatory finger at him. 

“Wait, you were talking about Cas?” Charlie gives him a ‘duh’ look. “I’m sorry I doubted you Charlie. If I’d just agreed back then I could have met him a lot sooner.” 

“You didn’t even know my name and you wanted to set me up with your friend?” Cas looks at her with a mixture of confusion and distrust. 

“I knew your last name and that you worked at the university. Plus you’re like, totally his type.” I was just trying to help a brother out.” She shrugs. Dean laughs at that and pats Cas’ shoulder.

“She grows on you” he reassures him. Cas raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything. 

They spend the rest of Sam’s break getting acquainted and somehow Sam gets talked into inviting Jessica to dinner with Dean, Cas, Charlie, and Charlie’s girlfriend Dorothy. She doesn’t even hesitate when she accepts his invitation.

“That’s how you do it Charlie.” Dean gloats as he watches his little brother and Jessica flirt behind the counter. She couldn’t get Dean and Cas together in five months and it took all of five minutes for Dean to get Sam to ask out his cute coworker. Charlie flips him off and disappears in the back. Cas just rolls his eyes and sips at his peppermint hot chocolate.


	12. December 12th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I had no idea where I was going with this story and I stayed up way late writing it. sorry in advance if it's a little disjointed.

“So, Castiel, what are you getting Dean and Sam for christmas?” Charlie says as she sidles up next to Cas in the bunker’s library. “And can I, maybe, join in?” She bats her eyes at him. 

“I wasn’t planning on getting anything.” Cas says without looking up from the book he’s reading.

“You’re not getting your best friends anything for christmas!?” 

“Um, no.” Cas looks up at her outburst. “We’ve never exchanged gifts before, why would this year be any different?”

“You’ve been friends for how many years? And you never gotten each other christmas gifts?” She asks in disbelief. Cas just shakes his head. 

“Cas, dude, we gotta remedy this.” 

“How?”

“Well you could start by getting them gifts this year.” Charlie pulls up amazon to show Cas how to order gifts online instead of going out in the holiday crowds. 

“What do I get them?” Cas looks at the selection of items labeled ‘recommended for you’ but he doesn’t see why Dean or Sam might need a replica sword or a Hermione tree ornament. 

“How am I supposed to know. You’ve known them longer. That’s why I was asking you in the first place.” Charlie drums her fingers lightly on the keyboard, not pressing them down hard enough to type anything, just making a light clicking sound. 

“Sam has been complaining about not having a blender, since their last one got smashed. He can’t make his post run smoothies.” Cas suggests and Charlie types blender into the search bar. They scroll through and settle on a heavy duty one with lots of attachments and a high rating. They’re both trying to come up with something for Dean when the man in question saunters into the library. 

“What are you two up to?” He tries to take a peek at the screen but Charlie closes the laptop before he can see anything. Sam comes in shortly after and they get to work on a new case Sam found. Gift purchasing temporarily forgotten. 

After the hunt is over Sam and Dean show Charlie to a spare room with clean bedding and then make their way to their own rooms to crash. Cas wanders around the bunker for several hours until he remembers his and Charlie’s earlier mission to find christmas gifts. He sees Sam’s tablet on the kitchen table and figures Sam won’t mind if he borrows it. 

He can’t think of anything to get for Dean so he googles ‘gift ideas’ and there are autofill search options for ‘gift ideas for men’ ‘gift ideas for wife’ ‘gift ideas for mom’ Cas clicks on the first one and sees something that catches his attention. 12 Days Of Christmas Gift Ideas For Him. Cas clicks on the article excitedly. It’s perfect he’s known dean for 12 years so he can get him a gift to make up for each year he’d missed. 

\------------

They celebrate Christmas eve with their found family. Dean cooks a large meal and Jack puts on a Santa hat to pass out everyone’s gifts. 

Clair gets a new set of headphones from Alex and Donna gets a gift certificate to a spa from Patience. Sam and Dean chuckle at the strained smile on her face as she thanks the girl for the gift but when Jody gives them a questioning look they just shake their heads. 

Sam thanks Charlie profusely for the blender and Jack swings around a realistic looking lightsaber. Jack piles 12 neatly wrapped packages in front of Dean. Each of them numbers 1-12 and Cas tells him he has to open them in order.

“Cas not that I’m complaining or anything but why did you get me so much stuff?” Dean shakes the first package to see if he can guess what’s in it. Cas explains that he’s making up for 12 years of missed christmas gifts. 

Dean rips the paper off his first gift and stares at a bottle of massage oil. “Uh, thanks Cas.” He sets it aside. 

His next gift is a bluetooth shower speaker that he thinks is actually pretty cool until Cas makes a comment about how he ‘loves to sing in the shower and now he can have music to sing along to’ Sam laughs and thanks Cas for the compression socks for running and the portable coffee mug. Dean is a little hesitant to open his third. With good reason. 

It’s a set of shot glasses, shaped like naked bodies. Two female shaped and two male shaped. If it had just been the four of them he would have laughed but he’s got Jody, Donna and the girls all looking to see what he got and then Charlie grabs one of the lady shaped ones and says something about body shots and runs off to find some liquor. 

“Cas, buddy, these are um… nice?” He wonders why Cas thought he’d want them. Charlie comes back and fills each shot glass, handing the other lady one to Sam and Jody takes one of the dude ones. Donna turns down the shot so Charlie presses it into Dean’s hand. He gives it a once over and is impressed by the detail put into making it anatomically correct. They down their ‘body shots’ and then Charlie encourages him to finish opening his gifts. Dean shakes his next present and gives Cas a wary look. 

It’s an apron and Dean laughs out loud when he reads what’s written on it. Best Cock Ever with the Cock crossed out and then underneath that the word Cook. He puts it on and laughs some more. Sam groans because he knows Dean’s going to wear it every time he cooks and he still can’t get him to stop referring to himself as ‘meat man.’ It’s going to be so much worse if he does it while wearing that apron. 

“But is it true?” Jody asks. Which errands a peal of laughter form Donna and Charlie. 

“No, don’t answer that. I don’t wanna know.” Clair says as she clamps her hands over her ears. 

“Hell yeah it’s true.” Dean beams with pride. 

“Both statements?” Donna asks. Dean nods and waggles his eyebrows. 

He’s a lot less hesitant about his next present and is a little perplexed when it’s just a candle. He pops it open and takes a sniff, it smells like the ocean. He’s not much of a candle guy but it might come in handy on a hunt or in a summoning ritual. 

The sixth gift is a deck of cards and Dean starts talking about teaching Cas and Jack how to play poker and Sam takes the cards and reads what’s written on the box.

“Um, probably not with these cards” Sam hands the box back to Dean and his face reddens when he sees that they’re actually a sex postition card set. 

“Cas buddy, why did you get these? Did someone” Dean sends a pointed glance at his brother “put you up to this?”

“No, you said you liked card games when you were growing up and you like sex. I just thought you might find them useful.” He says it so innocently and Dean thinks he’s gonna have to have another talk with the angel about appropriate behaviour with friends. 

The next gift is a pair of cowboy boots, in his size and he pulls them on excitedly. Next is a pack of Burt's Bees chapstick with three different flavors. The ninth gift is a stethoscope, which gets a lot of odd looks but no explanation from Cas. He sets it aside and grabs the next one. He’s barely even got one corner open when he stops and puts the gift down.

“You know what guys. I feel weird being the only one opening gifts. Why don’t I leave the rest of these for tomorrow and we call it a night.” 

“You only have a couple more dude. Just open them.” Charlie tells him and Jack looks at the partially opened gift with curiosity. 

“What’s in that one?” He asks.

“Nothing!” Dean says, too fast. Which only piques everyone's interest. Sam grabs it before Dean can stop him and peaks inside. He laughs harder than he has in years and Dean snatches the gift out of his hands. Dean holds it to his chest so no one else can see what’s under the ripped paper. His face is cherry red and he shoots a glare at Cas who's been suspiciously quiet for a very long time. When Cas is sure no one is looking his way he winks at Dean and then his face is neutral again. Dean glares at him harder. He’s finally caught on to what Cas is doing. 

Patience runs out of patience and instead of trying to get Dean to finish opening the present he’s holding she grabs the 11th present and tears it open. It’s a bottle of strawberry flavored lube. Dean looks at it and suddenly forgets the package in his hands and Clair snatches it away while he’s distracted. It’s a silk blindfold that says ‘fuck me’ and she blushes when she starts to connect the gifts. 

Jack reaches for the last gift and Dean snatches it before he can. 

“Ok that’s enough of that. You--” He points at Cas “Kitchen. Now.” Then he stalks out of the room. Cas follows him.

“What the fuck man?” Dean whirls on Cas as soon as they’re alone.

“You don’t like my gifts?” Cas gives him an earnest look that is obviously fake. 

“Don’t play innocent with me. I know you’re not that naive.” He gets right up in Cas’ personal space but the angel doesn’t back down. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Dean.” Dean narrows his eyes. 

“Oh really? So Ther’s not a sex toy in this last gift?” He holds up the gift in question. Guessing from the size he’d say it was cock rings or a personal vibrator of some sort. “Who put you up to this, Sam, Charlie?” 

“You’ll have to open it to find out.” Cas smirks and it sends a shiver down Dean’s spine. “And no one put me up to it. I found a list of gift ideas on the computer.” Dean groans but starts to tear the paper away from the last gift.

It’s not a sex toy. In the box is a tape titled Dean’s playlist. He stares at the mixtape for several seconds and then looks up at Cas.

“You made me a mixtape?” He asks and Cas nods. “You know what this means right? Giving someone a mixtape.” 

“Yes Dean I know what it means, I even made sure to give you other gifts that held similar sentiments so you’d know I knew what I was doing.” 

“Oh!” Is all Dean says before the realization hits him and he surges forward to kiss Cas.

Sam walks into the kitchen to see what’s taking them so long and then slowly backs out when he sees them. 

He goes back to the group and tells them not to expect Dean or Cas back any time soon. No one asks him to elaborate.

“But they forgot these.” Donna says and she holds up the lube and cards. Sam groans and Charlie laughs. Then they debate if Cas knew what some of his gifts were implying or if he was completely clueless. 

Sam is firmly in the belief that Cas knew exactly what he was doing and he had to give the guy props. Somehow he’d gotten his point across in a way that Dean would understand and it resulted in Dean finally pulling his head out of his ass.


	13. December 13th

Jack looks around in wonder as he and Sam walk into the brightly lit building. There’s a massive christmas tree in the center of everything and christmas music is playing cherrily through the speakers. Sam grabs the kid by his coat sleeve and directs him away from the major walkways. People rush past them in every direction carrying shopping bags and prodding distracted children to keep them moving. Much like Sam is doing to Jack. 

“This way Jack.” Sam tows him to a store on their left.

“Why are there so many people here?” Jack wonders aloud and narrowly misses being run down by a gruff looking old man exiting the store.

“Last minute christmas shopping.” Sam explains and starts digging through the rows of records. He selects a few of Dean’s favorites and then walks up to the counter to check out.

“What are these?” Jack pulls one out of the sleeve and stares at it holding some ancient secrets. A middle aged man in line behind them laughs and he gives Sam a commiserating look.

“Kids these days.” He says and Sam just nods.

“It’s a record” He tells Jack but the kid just looks at him like he’s spoken a foreign language so Sam elaborates. “It’s music and you play it on a record player.” 

“A record player?” Jack asks and that earns another chuckle from the man behind them.

“Yeah it’s a machine that plays records, kinda like an old cd player.” Sam tries to explain, not realising that Jack doesn’t know what a CD is either. 

“CD?” Jack tests out the new word.

“Uh, like a DVD only it’s just music and you don’t play it on the tv.” 

“Oh, DVDs like Dean’s old cowboy movies?” Jack is excited to finally know what Sam is talking about.

“Yeah, those are DVDs.” Sam rolls his eyes.

“Sam?” Jack holds up the record and inspects it again “This won’t fit in our DVD player.” The man behind them really loses it then. He’s laughing so hard tears are leaking out of the corners of his eyes. 

“Kid you just made my day.” The guy wipes his eyes and pats Jack on the shoulder. “I can’t wait to tell my wife about this.” Jack is confused but he smiles at the man anyway. Sam just shakes his head.

It’s their turn at the register, Sam puts their items on the counter and then tells the cashier that he’s also picking up a record player that he’d ordered earlier. The guy disappears behind an employees only door and returns a few moments later with a large box. Sam hands the box to Jack while he pays for their purchases and then they leave the store.

“Is this a record player?” Jack holds up the box and Sam nods. 

“Oh” 

They visit a few more stores and Sam helps Jack pick out some christmas gifts for Dean and Cas and they’re about to leave when Jack asks if he can borrow Sam’s credit card. Sam hands the card over easily but when he asks Jack what he needs it for, Jack just tells him he’ll meet him at the car and takes off in the opposite direction. 

By the time Sam has everything loaded in the trunk Jack is ready to leave, he hands Sam his card back and stuffs one more bag in the trunk, making sure to bury it under other bags. When Sam tries to get a peak Jack slams the trunk closed. Sam just grins at the kid and gets in the car. He can wait a few more days to see what the kid got him.


	14. December 14th

When Sam called to invite Dean to his and Eileen’s for christmas part of Dean wanted to turn down the offer, but another part, the part that reminded him he hadn’t seen Sam in over two years, really wanted to accept. Dean and Sam had always been close but life happened. Sam married Eileen and then got an offer at a law firm in Cincinnati that he couldn’t turn down, so they’d moved, and Dean was still trying to get his business off the ground so he didn’t have time to go and visit them. Before they knew it, two years had passed and they’d only seen each other through a computer screen a handful of times. They still texted and called pretty regularly but again, life happened, they were busy. 

“I would love to see you guys Sammy but I kinda had plans with Cas.” Dean tells him and hopes his little brother understands. 

“You have plans with Cas for the entire week? He’s not going home to see his family for the holidays?” Sam clearly does not get it. 

“No, he was just gonna stay here. We thought this year we might just have a simple, quiet, christmas. You know how his family gets when they’re all together.” 

“Ok I get why he would want a break from that but why does that mean that you have to stay with him?” Sam knew Cas’ family, he and Dean grew up next door to the Novak’s until their parents were killed in a car accident during Dean's junior year of high school. After the accident they went to live with their uncle Bobby in Idaho. Dean and Cas remained friends through email and phone calls and then when they graduated they ended up at the same college. 

“Why wouldn’t I stay with him? I’m not gonna let him celebrate Christmas alone Sam.” Dean immediately goes on the defensive. 

“You’re right, I’m just being selfish because I miss you and I haven’t seen you in so long.” Sam sighs and Dean can’t stay mad at him when he’s being all emotionally mature and shit.

“I miss you too,” Dean tries not to cringe at the chick flick moment “and Eileen. Maybe next year we can plan something.” He tries to compromise.

“Or, Cas can just come here this year. If he wants to that is. I know you said he wanted a quiet christmas but it would just be the four of us so it wouldn’t be that bad.” 

“Are you sure Sammy? I don’t want you to feel like you have to invite him.” Dean hesitates. He would love to celebrate christmas with the three people he loves the most but he doesn’t want to impose. 

“Yeah, we haven’t seen Cas since our wedding. It will be fun.” 

“I’ll have to see if Cas is ok with it but I think he will be.” Dean grins.

\--------------

A week later Dean and Cas fly into Cincinnati and Sam picks them up at the airport. He and Cas chat amiably while they wait for their luggage at the carousel and Dean grumbles about not having his car and how he almost died on the plane. Cas just rolls his eyes and tells Sam that Dean’s “near death experience” was just him freaking out over a little bit of turbulence which resulted in him swallowing his drink wrong and a coughing fit. Dean glares at the two of them but decides it’s not worth arguing over it. They’d just gang up on him anyways. Then he spots their bag and grabs it.

“Ok, let's get out of here.” He grumbles and starts walking away.

“Wait, what about Cas’ bag.” Sam asks. 

“We just brought the one bag and a carry on. It’s cheaper.” Cas explains. Sam thinks it’s a little weird that they’d share a suitcase but he doesn’t say anything. Dean and Cas have always been close and who is he to judge what his brother and his best friend do to save a little money. 

Eileen runs out of the house when she sees them pull up and Dean wraps her up in a big bear hug. After he lets her go she hugs Cas just as tightly. She’d missed them just as much as Sam had. 

Sam gives them a short tour of their place while Eileen finishes making dinner. Sam tells Cas they have the guest room ready for him which earns him a weird, confused look from Dean as he rolls the suitcase into the room. 

“We only have one guest room Dean and Cas is more of a guest than you are. We have a pullout couch in the tv room downstairs. I put clean sheets on it earlier and it’s pretty comfortable. You’ll be fine.” Sam tells him before he can complain about being stuck on the couch. Then the doorbell rings and Sam leaves to answer it. Dean and Cas stare after him with twin looks of confusion.

“I never took your brother for a prude.” Cas says and Dean nods.

“I’ll talk to him. I’m not sleeping in the basement.” Dean opens the suitcase and pulls out a few things. He wants to wash off all the travel grime before dinner. He gives Cas a kiss and then leaves to find the bathroom Sam pointed out earlier. Cas wanders into the kitchen to see if Eileen needs any help. She doesn’t hesitate to put him to work. 

“What was at the door?” She asks when he comes back in the kitchen. She’d seen the light flashing to indicate someone ringing the doorbell but she ignored it, knowing Sam would answer. 

“Oh, just a package that I had to sign for.” He holds up the package in question and then deposits it on the counter. 

“Will you tell Dean dinner is ready?” She asks but before Sam can say anything Dean saunters into the room. 

“Did I just hear it was time to eat?” He sniffs at the air and pats his belly. Sam and Cas roll their eyes but give him fond smiles. 

“It’s like you have a sixth sense for food.” Sam teases him goodnaturedly.

“So what have you guys been up to?” Eileen asks after everyone is settled at the table. 

“Not much just work, the shop is doing great and I even hired a couple new employees last month.” Dean beams with pride while he talks about his auto body shop. Bobby left him and Sam some money in his will. Sam had used his for the downpayment on their house and Dean and used his to start his business. 

“That’s great. Are you able to get away now and take a break?” She asks. 

“I wish. I think it’ll still be a couple years before I can leave for longer than a day without them burning the place down. They’re great but nobody else really knows how to do the books or fill out parts requests. I’m training Benny and Jo right now so hopefully someday I can leave one of them in charge while I go on vacation.” 

“What about you Cas, how are things at the school?” Sam asks.

“Good. We had a christmas pageant last week before we set them all free for the holidays. My class sang Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer and we made antlers out of construction paper. It was a lot of fun.”

“They were pretty cute.” Dean grins at Cas “With their little noses painted red and the off key singing.” 

“Oh, I can’t wait to see our little one dressed like a reindeer.” Eileen sighs. 

“Your little one? Is there something you haven’t told me?” Dean looks at Sam in shock.

“I’m pregnant.” Eileen beams at him and places her hand against her still flat belly. “We just found out last week so it’s still really early but I couldn’t keep it a secret any longer.” 

“Congratulations!” Cas stands up to give her a hug followed by Dean. 

“Wow, dude. You’re gonna be a dad.” Dean grins and pulls his little brother into a tight hug. 

“Crazy right?” Sam grins. He still hasn’t completely wrapped his head around it yet. It’s still so new. 

“It’s gonna be great. We’ll have to come visit more often so my niece or nephew knows who I am.” Dean declares and looks at Cas as if asking for permission. 

“Obviously” Cas says “and more video calls too.” 

They spend the rest of the evening talking about this and that and pretty soon Eileen decides to call it a night with Sam following not long after her. He asks Dean and Cas if they mind calling it an early night and they tell him they’re ready for bed too. They’ve had a long day of traveling. They say their goodnights with Sam checking and double checking that they don’t need anything before he heads to bed. They assure him they’ll be fine. 

Dean follows Cas into the guest room and they change into their sleep clothes.

“It’s been a long day.” Dean groans as he sinks into the soft mattress. It’s not as comfortable as their memory foam one but it’s better than a hotel. Cas slips under the covers next to him and curls into his side.

“Mmhm” he presses his face against Dean’s chest and sighs contentedly. 

“Thanks for this.” Dean rubs Cas’ back and presses a kiss to the top of his head.”I know you wanted to spend our first christmas together, just the two of us.” Cas props his chin up on Dean’s chest so he can look at him.

“It’s not really our first christmas together. We’ve known each other since we were five and there was that one time when we got snowed in our dorm and we couldn’t go home for the holidays.” Cas points out. 

“It’s our first christmas together as an official couple though.” 

“True, but I don’t mind spending it with your brother. I actually like him and Eileen.” Cas gives him an earnest look.

“I’m telling Gabe you like my family more than him.” Dean teases. 

“Oh, he already knows.” Cas dismisses the threat. “You know how crazy my family gets and how crowded my parents house is on christmas morning. I really just want a quiet christmas and I don’t mind that it’s not just the two of us as long as it’s not crazy. Which so far it’s been pretty nice.” Dean grins at Cas and gives him a soft kiss.

“It has been pretty nice.” He agrees. 

\----------

When Dean stumbles into the kitchen the next morning Sam is already up making waffles.

“Morning, how’d you sleep?” He asks Dean cheerily. 

Dean just grunts and pours himself a large cup of coffee after a few sips a strip of bacon he answers.

“Pretty good. What’s the plan for today?” 

“Eileen got called into the hospital so I figured we could just hang out here for a bit. I need to run to the store to pick up a gift I ordered but other than that I figured we could just relax, catch up a little more, maybe do a movie marathon.” 

“Sounds good to me.” Dean takes another sip of his coffee and turns when he hears Cas’ morning zombie shuffle coming into the kitchen. 

“Morning sunshine. Coffee?” Dean asks and Cas groans, taking the cup out of Dean’s hands and drinking half of it in one go. He’s lucky it’s cooled off a little while Dean and Sam were talking. Sam watches as his brother just stands there and grins at the man that stole his coffee. 

“Cas we have other mugs.” Sam points at the cupboard with the mugs but Cas just grunts and shuffles to the table with Dean’s cup. Dean shakes his head and pours another cup for himself.

“Don’t bother Sam, he’s pretty useless in the mornings. Usually takes a couple cups of coffee before he’s ready to be civil.” 

“Oh” Sam says and looks at the grouchy man huddled over his coffee at the table. He wonders how Dean knows what Cas is like in the morning but then remembers they were roommates in college. 

Once Cas is fully caffeinated and everyone has finished their breakfast they head to the store to pick up Sam’s order and then they stop to grab all the unhealthy snacks Sam and Eileen don’t normally keep in the house. Dean insists on the snack if they’re going to do a movie marathon and Sam only argues a little bit before giving in. 

When they get back to the house Sam leads them down to the tv room in the basement and is confused when the pullout couch is exactly the way he left it the day before. Clearly no one slept on it last night. Sam stares at it for several seconds before Dean asks how they put it away. Sam shows Dean how to fold it down and they put the cushions back in place. 

“Dean where did you sleep last night?” Sam asks. 

“The guest room” Dean says as if it’s the most obvious answer. 

“Then where did Cas sleep?” Sam didn’t think his brother would be rude enough to force his friend to sleep on the couch but maybe he was wrong.

“The guest room” Dean says again and gives Sam a confused look. Sam is just as confused. 

“But there's only one bed” Sam says as if they don’t already know.

“I never took you for a prude Sam” Dean chuckles uncomfortably. “I mean you and Eileen lived together for two years before you got married. Don’t expect me to believe you slept in separate beds that whole time.” 

“No, of course not. But Eileen and I are a couple.” Sam waves a dismissive hand and Cas shifts uncomfortably on the other side of the room.

“Wow Sam tell me how you really feel?” Dean is angry now. 

“What?” Sam looks at Dean and then at Cas even more confused. Cas won’t look at him. 

“Just cause we’re two guys doesn’t mean our relationship is any less valid than yours.” Dean seeths. He never suspected that his brother would be homophobic but people can surprise you sometimes. 

“What?” Sam repeats. He’s really lost now. 

“If I knew you felt that way I wouldn’t have come. Come on Cas let’s go.” Dean stalks toward the stairs and Cas hesitates looking back and forth between the brothers.

“Dean…” Cas starts but stops. He understands how Dean is feeling but he doesn’t want Dean to leave things with his brother on a bad note. They’ve always been so close and Cas would hate to be the reason they stop talking.

“What the hell are you talking about? And why are you leaving? Dean!” Sam yells after him. He looks at Cas for an explanation but Cas still won’t meet his eyes. Dean whirls around and glares at his brother. 

“I would have expected something like this from dad but I thought you were better Sam.”

“Expected What!” Sam throws his hands up in the air in frustration. He has no idea why his brother is suddenly so angry.

“Dean, I think there's been a misunderstanding.” Cas cuts in. He can see that Sam’s genuinely confused about what’s going on.

“You’re damn right there’s been a misunderstanding, I never thought my brother would be homophobic. I won’t make that mistake again.” He growls.

“Whoa whoa whoa, what! I’m not homophobic.” Sam looks rightfully offended. 

“Coulda fooled me.” Dean seeths.

“Ok, stop.” Cas cuts in. “Sam, I’m sorry I think there's been a little mixup.”

“Why are you apologising to him?” Dean cuts in but Cas holds up a hand to silence him

“Sam, Dean and I are dating.” Cas tells him. 

“You’re dating?” Cas nods “Since when?”

“Since last March.” Dean says when he realises what Cas realized a few minutes earlier. “I told you months ago.” 

“No you didn’t,” Sam argues.

“Yeah I did, I told you about taking him to that new art exhibit and I told you two months ago when he moved in.”

“You never said that art exhibit thing was a date and you didn’t tell me he was moving in because you were in a relationship. You told me his lease was up at his old place and you made it sound like he was just staying with you until he found a new place.” Sam argues. 

“No, I said his lease was up and he’d be staying with me until my lease was up and then we’d get a new place.” Dean corrects. 

“Ok, I can see how I might have misunderstood what you meant.” Sam concedes. “But dude you never acted like a couple, how was I supposed to know you were dating?” 

“You’re the only one who thinks that. All of our friends constantly complain about how 'disgustingly domestic’ we are.” Dean says, quoting their friend Crowley. 

“I think Charlie refers to us as an old married couple.” Cas chimes in. 

“You didn’t seem any different than the last time we saw you.” Sam defends himself. 

Cas and Dean just shrug and when Sam takes a moment to actually think about it a lot of things start to make more sense. The shared suitcase, the coffee cup, Dean going to watch Cas’ students perform. 

“I’m an idiot.” Sam sighs.

“No arguments here” Dean quips. “You’re ok with...this.” he gestures between Cas and himself.

“Of course” Sam says automatically. “I like Cas and if he makes you happy I’ve got no objections.” Cas gives him a soft, shy smile. 

“Good cause I’d have to kick your ass if you did anything to insult my boyfriend.” Dean pats him on the back and then snatches up the remote. 

“Now let’s get this movie marathon going.” He flops down on the couch and Sam and Cas join him. 

Eileen comes home a few hours later and joins them. Sam signs his newly acquired information to her while Dean and Cas are engrossed in the movie and she raises an eyebrow at him before glancing at them out of the corner of her eye.

“Makes sense.” She signs back and Sam has to agree with her. Now that he’s actually looking at them from a different perspective he can see why their friends call them an old married couple. He can also see why it took him so long to realize. They’ve always been this close; it was just a little more toned down before. 

The rest of the holiday goes off without a hitch and when it’s time for Dean and Cas to go back home Sam gives them each an extra long hug. Eileen makes them promise to come back and visit when the baby is born.


	15. December 15th

“Dean, what are you doing?” Dean jumps at the unexpected voice and bangs his head on the inside of the cupboard. He turns to see Jack standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

“Hey kid, I thought you went to the store with Cas.” Dean rubs at the sore spot on the back of his head.

“No, I decided to stay home.” Jack smiles at him. “What were you looking for?” He tries to peer into the cupboard Dean was rifling through. 

“Oh, uh just a baking sheet. I know there’s one around here somewhere.” He pulls open another cupboard and starts digging around. Jack joins the search. 

“What does a baking sheet look like?” He asks after a few moments of searching. 

“It’s just a flat metal tray.” Dean tells him and then cheers in triumph when he spots it buried underneath some pots. He pulls it out and hands it to Jack.

“Go rinse this off and dry it” he instructs the kid. If he’s gonna be in the kitchen Dean will put him to work. Jack doesn’t complain like Sam would he just does what he’s told. 

“Ok, now what?” Jack sets the tray down on the table and Dean hands him a large bowl.

“There’s some butter in the microwave, put that in the bowl and then put in one of those packages of cream cheese and get the hand mixer.” Dean instructs while he cracks eggs into a smaller bowl. Jack follows his instructions. 

Once he’s got everything in the bowl Dean comes over and plugs in the hand mixer, showing Jack how to turn it on and mix the butter and cream cheese together.

“Just mix it around until it's smooth.” He hands the mixer over to Jack and returns to his own task. He pours some vanilla and some almond extract into the bowl with the egg and then sets it aside. After Jack’s mixture is smooth Dean tells him to turn off the mixer and add in a cup and a half of sugar. Then he has the kid mix it again until it’s light and fluffy. 

“Ok kid now put the mixer on low and keep going while I add in the rest of the wet ingredients.” After all the wet ingredients are mixed together Dean slowly starts adding in the flour, salt, and baking powder while Jack mixes.

Dean dusts the flour off of his shirt and then covers the bowl with plastic wrap and puts it in the fridge to let it chill while they clean up. 

“What are we making?” Jack asks for the first time.

“Sugar cookies, for Christmas.” Dean hands him a rolling pin and the opened bag of flour. Then digs around in a shopping bag for the cookie cutters he’d bought earlier. 

“Is that what people do for Christmas, make cookies?” Jack picks up a cookie cutter shaped like a tree and examines it. 

“Yeah, well, normal people anyways.” 

He cleans off the beaters for the hand mixer and then gives them to Jack to dry. 

“While the dough cools we can make the frosting.” Dean turns on the oven to warm it up and then walks Jack through a simple cream cheese frosting recipe. When they’re done Dean takes the beaters off the mixer and hands one to Jack. The kid looks at it confused and then at Dean who has the other beater in his mouth. Jack takes a lick of the frosting and hums his approval. 

“That’s good.” He says and proceeds to lick the beater clean. 

“It’ll be even better on the cookies.” Dean assures him and then pulls out the dough.

“Ok so spread the flour on the table before you roll the dough out so it doesn’t stick.” Dean demonstrates by sprinkling a handful of flour across the table. Then he takes some of the dough and works it into a ball. “Now sprinkle more flour on the dough and rub some on the rolling pin to prevent sticking, and roll it out.” He shows Jack how to roll the dough flat. “Don’t roll it too thin or they’ll be crunchy when they bake. About a quarter inch thick is what we're looking for. They’ll be soft and just a little crisp around the edges.” 

Jack follows his instructions but he’s not quite sure how to tell if they’re thick enough. When he asks Dean if he should get a ruler and measure the thickness Dean laughs and says “Just eyeball it kid” He holds up his hand to show him an estimate of how thick they should be and Jack isn’t sure what that has to do with eyeballs but he looks at the flat dough and thinks it looks close enough. Dean presses the cookie cutters into the dough and then places the cookies on the baking sheet. Once it’s full he sets a timer for eight minutes and puts it in the oven. 

“And that’s how you make sugar cookies.” He tells the kid.”After they come out of the oven we gotta let them cool off for a bit but then we can put the frosting on.” 

“Why do they have to cool?” 

“We can’t frost them while they’re warm the frosting will melt.” Dean says it with the authority of someone who’d learned that lesson first hand. 

“Oh, that makes sense.” Jack nods and sticks his finger in the frosting when he thinks Dean isn’t looking. Dean glances up just in time to see Jack suck the frosting covered finger into his mouth and he smirks at the kid. 

“Don’t eat all the frosting before the cookies are done. Sammy’ll kill me if you end up with a cavity.” Jack looks guiltily at Dean and then the frosting. They hear the bunker door creak open and then a few moments later Cas walks in the room. He’s got a few shopping bags in his hands and he looks around the disaster that used to be their kitchen.

“Did a bag of flour explode in here?” He asks and Dean laughs before he realises that Cas was being serious. He genuinely thought that something had exploded. 

“We made cookies!” Jack beams at his father and the oven dings, alerting them that their cookies are ready to come out. 

Cas peers at the cookies on the tray as Dean pulls it out of the oven. 

“Those look great Jack. I’m glad you got to learn something new today.” He gives Jack a pat on the shoulder.

“Kid’s a natural in the kitchen” Dean beams with pride.

When Sam and Eileen get back from their hunt later that night they’re surprised to see a plate of colorfully decorated Christmas cookies on the table. Eileen grabs a couple before following Sam to his room. He may not be a fan of eating sweets late at night but she is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He're a recipe for cream cheese sugar cookies. There's a frosting recipe on the website too but I alway do a cream cheese frosting on cream cheese sugar cookies so that's what I had Dean do. 
> 
> https://www.tastesoflizzyt.com/cream-cheese-sugar-cookies/


	16. December 16th

Dean pulls into his driveway just as his phone starts ringing. He puts the car in park and fishes the device out of his pocket.

“Hello” 

“Hey Mr. W.” says the voice on the other end of the call. L

“Hey Krissy, what’s up?” Dean glances at his watch and notes the time. Sam will be there in an hour and he needs to shower and change. 

“I can’t babysit for you tonight. I caught a bug or something and threw up at school. I was going to call you earlier but I fell asleep in the car on the way home and I just woke up. I’m so sorry.” Dean sighs and looks at the time again. He wonders if he can find a last minute sitter before dinner. 

“That’s ok Krissy. We’ll figure something else out” he assures her. “Feel better soon.” He groans and gets out of the car. He knows it’s not her fault but he’s still frustrated that it's such short notice. 

“Babe!” He calls when he walks in the door and Cas pokes his head around the kitchen door.

“You’re late, Sam will be here in an hour.” Cas admonishes him.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. We have a bigger problem. Krissy’s sick, will you call and see if Patience can babysit tonight?”

“I’ll see, it’s kinda late notice though.” Cas grimaces. 

“Tell me about it.” Dean grumbles and heads to their bathroom to shower. 

When he’s out of the shower and getting dressed Cas comes in the room and flops down on their bed dejectedly.

“Patience has a project due tomorrow, Clair is on a date, I even tried Gabriel but he was out at some bar and he already sounded pretty drunk.” Cas grumbles into the comforter. Dean looks at the time with a sigh. 

“Should we reschedule with Sam and Eileen?” Dean asks but before Cas can answer the doorbell rings. 

“I got it!” A little voice yells excitedly from the other room and Dean rushes out to stop their four year old from opening the door by himself. He gets there in time to see Eileen on the doorstep saying hello to Jack.

“Jack what have I told you about answering the door without a grownup?” Dean scolds and the boy looks up at his dad sheepishly. 

“I forgot.” Dean shakes his head and scoops the boy up into his arms and tickles him.

“You forgot? I guess I’ll just have to tickle you till you remember.” Jack giggles and Dean steps aside to welcome Eileen in. He puts the child down and sends him to go find Cas. 

“So our sitter canceled last minute. Cas has been calling around trying to find a backup but he hasn’t had any luck. So the question is do you want to reschedule for another night or would you be alright doing dinner here? It would mean having dinner with a four year old.” He asks. They’ve got everything they need for some burgers and Dean can throw together a potato salad pretty quickly. 

“I wouldn’t mind if Sam is ok with it.” Eileen says and then there’s another knock at the door.

“Speak of the devil.” Dean opens the door to find his oversized brother behind it. He Introduces Sam to Eileen and then explains the situation. Sam doesn’t have a problem with their improvised plan either so Dean sends him and Eileen into the livingroom to “get to know each other” and pulls Cas into the kitchen to help make dinner. 

Jack runs into the room when he hears his uncle's voice and launches himself at Sam.

“Sam!” He yells and his uncle grunts when the full force of the excited child lands on his lap. 

“Hey buddy.” Sam loves his nephew but he kinda wishes he would go bother his dads and give him some time to get acquainted with the beautiful woman in front of him. 

It took Dean and Cas several weeks to convince Sam to let them set him up with Cas’ coworker Eileen. He hadn’t really dated anyone in the year since his girlfriend, Jess, died but he was quick to scoff at his brother trying to play matchmaker. Especially after it took him almost a decade to realize that his feelings for Cas were not unrequited. 

The original plan was for the four of them to go out to dinner and leave the kid with a sitter. Cas thought Eileen would feel more comfortable doing a double date instead of going by herself to meet a man she doesn’t know. Sam reluctantly agreed, comforting himself with the knowledge that he would at least have his brother and brother in law as a buffer if he and Eileen didn’t hit it off. 

“Sam, I got a new race car. Do you wanna play?” Jack jumped off of Sam’s lap before he could answer and ran into the other room to retrieve the toy. He backs into the room a moment later, towing a box full of cars and track pieces. 

“I got the race track too so we can play car races.” Jack announces and then hands out tiny toy cars to Sam and Eileen. He pulls his new car out of his pocket to show them and they ooh and aah. The little boy beams at the praise and then tells them how to make a race track so they can race their cars. 

Cas calls them to dinner a little while later and Jack whines about having to put away his toys until Eileen turns it into a game. Sam smiles at how easily she connects with his nephew. He knows he shouldn’t be surprised she works with children at Cas’ school so obviously she’s good with kids. 

“Jack did you wash your hands?” Dean asks the little boy as he climbs up onto his booster seat.

“Yes.” Jack nods but Dean gives him a suspicious look.

“With soap?” He asks.

“Yes.” Jack repeats and holds his hands out to his dad “Smell.” Dean leans down and sniffs the hand and it does indeed smell like the soap in the bathroom.

“Good job buddy.” he ruffles the boy’s hair and starts filling his plate. Jack makes a face at the grapes but Dean just raises an eyebrow as if daring the child to complain. 

“Wow, that’s amazing!” Eileen says around a bit of her burger. 

“Thanks, burgers are my specialty.” Dean beams with pride. 

“Now you see why I married him.” Cas says conspiratorially to Eileen. 

“Mmmhm, I’d marry a man too if he could cook like this.” She sighs. 

“Well that puts a damper on things, Sam can’t cook to save his life. Would you be willing to settle for someone who’s related to someone who knows how to cook?” Dean asks in mock seriousness. 

“Dean!” Sam’s face goes beet red. 

“I could be persuaded to make an exception.” She gives Sam a flirty wink and he almost chokes on his drink.

The rest of dinner continues in easy conversation and then they clean up and move to the living room. Jack convinces his parents to let him watch Arthur Christmas, promising he’ll go to bed right after it’s over. He doesn’t even make it half way through before he’s passed out across Sam’s lap. Dean gently scoops up the kid and takes him to his room Cas not so subtly makes an excuse to follow him. 

It’s just Sam and Eileen finishing the movie together and they barely notice when it’s been over twenty minutes since Dean and Cas had left to put Jack in his bed. 

“Any fun plans for the holidays?” Sam asks and then internally cringes at how lame it sounds. 

“I didn’t really have anything planned. My parents are both gone and my only living relative is a great aunt that lives in a nursing home. I might stop and see her for a bit but she probably won’t remember who I am so… I’ll probably just stay home and enjoy the time off work.” She shrugs.

“My parents are gone too.” Sam blurts out. “I mean, just uh… I know how hard it is on the holidays.” He’s babbling and he can’t stop. He used to be good at this but ever since Jess he’s lost the ability to not be awkward around beautiful women. 

“It’s not too bad. I was just a baby when they died so I don’t really remember them.” Eileen explains and Sam feels a pang of sympathy. 

“I don’t remember my mom, Dean was about Jack’s age so he has some memories of her but I was too little. We lost dad a few years ago.” She puts a hand on his shoulder and they sit in companionable silence for a moment.

“They’ve been gone a long time,” Eileen looks toward the hallway Dean and Cas had disappeared down. “What do you think they’re doing?”

“Probably making out somewhere.” Sam guesses. 

“With guests in the house?” Eileen feigns a scandalized look. 

“I wouldn’t put it past them.” Sam stands up and says, “I’ll go see where they are.”

“Wait for me.” Eileen follows him down the hall. They peak into Jack’s room and see Dean curled around his sleeping child and Cas sitting on the floor propped up against the side of the bed, his hand resting on Jack's leg. All three of them were out cold. 

“Should we wake them?” Eileen whispers and Sam nods. He creams in and gently shakes Cas’ shoulder.

“Cas, Cas.” blue eyes blink open and he glares at Sam for a second before he remembers why he’s there. 

“Sorry” Cas says groggily. “Jack woke up when Dean tried to put him to bed and he insisted on a bedtime story and one story turned into five and I guess we fell asleep.” Cas yawns and gives his husband a nudge.

“Dean, get up.” Dean startles awake and then freezes when Jack starts to stir. Once the child settles back down without waking up the four adults let out the breaths they’d been holding.

“Did I fall asleep?” Dean blinks at the light pouring in from the hallway.

“We both did.” Cas yawns again and stands up, Dean follows his husband's example and gingerly extracts himself from the small bed.

They walk Sam and Eileen to the door. They’d offered to chat with them some more, maybe even open a bottle of wine and enjoy the rest of the evening without a kid around like they’d planned from the beginning. But Sam and Eileen can see how tired the two men are so they make an excuse to call it an early night and leave.

Sam hesitates at Eileen's car, not quite ready to say goodbye. 

“It was nice meeting you Sam.” Eileen gives him a shy smile,

“It was nice meeting you.” Sam shoots back awkwardly.

“We should do it again sometime.” Eileen says confidently. She’s never really been one to beat around the bush and she likes Sam.

“Ok, yeah, sure. Uh, when?” Sam stammers. 

“I’m free next Saturday, pick me up around five?” She says and he quickly agrees. She pulls out her phone and asks him to enter in his contact info.

“By Sam. See you next week.” She gives him a kiss on the cheek and then leaves. Sam watches her drive away with his hand pressed to the spot her lips had touched.


	17. December 17th

Cas turns over in bed and reaches out for his boyfriend only to find cooling sheets. He groans and cracks an eye open. Sunlight is filtering in through the curtains and illuminating the empty space next to him. He gropes his nightstand for his phone to check the time. It’s just after seven; way too early to be awake. Cas sits quietly to see if he can hear Dean anywhere in the apartment. There's a light hum of voices coming from the living room but they’re too low for Cas to make out what they’re saying and he can’t tell if it’s Dean talking to someone or if it’s the tv. He strains his ears to hear and there's a shuffling sound followed by a small whine. Cas’ eyebrows scrunch together in confusion as he tries to place the sound then he hears the door open and close.

After Cas hears Dean putter around the kitchen for a few minutes, just long enough to start a pot of coffee, he decides he might as well get up. It’s earlier than he’d like but it’s also Christmas morning and they’re going over to visit Dean’s parents in a couple hours.

He walks into the kitchen and sees Dean crouched behind the island muttering to himself. 

“Dean, what are you doing?” Cas asks and Dean jumps at the sound of his voice. He stays crouched down but pops his head up so he can see over the counter.

“Cas! Why are you up so early?” He asks and Cas squints at him. He’s acting suspicious. 

“I could ask you the same question.” Cas pours himself a cup of coffee and notices how Dean is still crouched down and shifting so Cas can’t see something behind his back. There’s a tiny whine sound again and Cas narrows his eyes.

“What was that?”

“What was what?” Dean counters and Cas can tell he’s hiding something. His eyes are all shifty and he looks nervous. 

“The whining sound” Cas elaborates. 

“I didn’t hear anything,” Dean says but his words are punctuated by another whine. 

“That sound, right there.” 

Dean shuffles around a little bit before saying, “Oh that sound, that was just my… shoe against the floor.” Cas looks pointedly at Dean’s bare feet and raises an eyebrow. Dean looks up from where he’s still crouching next to the counter, he looks like someone that’s just been backed into a corner. 

“Ok you got me, I had some of that cheese quiche that’s in the fridge and I didn’t take any lactase before so I’m a little gassy.” Dean tells him. 

Cas rolls his eyes and takes his coffee with him into the living room. He’d have thought Dean would know by now that dairy products upset his stomach. He plops down on the floor in front of their tree and starts searching for the gift he’d hidden away in the back so Dean wouldn't try to snoop and see what it was. 

“Are we doing presents or not?” Cas calls after he’s located the gift. He’d expected Dean to follow him out of the kitchen like an excited puppy. Dean was unusually excited for christmas this year and Cas thought he’d be just as excited to finally open presents this morning, but he was still in the kitchen.

There’s a rustling sound and a yip before Dean answers him. “Give me a minute” he sounds out of breath. Cas glances toward the kitchen door wondering what his boyfriend could possibly be doing in there. 

Dean comes into the room a moment later with a large box that appears to be shaking, or maybe it’s Dean that’s shaking. 

“Whatcha got there?” Cas asks with a smile. Dean gives him a nervous smile and the box jerks in his hands. He quickly steadys it before he drops it and Cas gives it a dubious glance. 

“Why is that box moving?” he asks. 

“Merry Christmas!” Dean cheers instead of answering his question. He sets the box in front of Cas and there is clearly something trying to get out. 

“Dean--” Cas starts but Dean cuts him off.

“Just open it.”

Cas pulls the ribbon off and the lid flies open as a small bundle of fur pops out. It’s a puppy. A tiny, fluffy little dog with floppy ears and it yips at Cas excitedly. He scoops it out of the box and cuddles it close.

“Dean, you got me a puppy!” He beams at his boyfriend and then turns back to the puppy licking his face. “Hello beautiful, oh aren’t you just the sweetest.” He coos at the dog.

“Do you like her?” Dean asks.

“She’s perfect.” Cas praises the animal “yes you are, you are just the most beautiful, perfect, softest puppy in the world.” He presses kisses into her fur. 

“You almost caught us in the kitchen when I gave her some food and water. Sam kept her at his place for a couple days and he dropped her off this morning while you were still asleep.” Dean explains but Cas isn’t really listening.

“What are we gonna name her?” Cas asks.

“I don’t know, what do you want to name her?” Cas looks at the puppy for a long moment while he thinks of a name. 

“Miracle” He says decisively. 

“Miracle?” 

“Yes, Miracle. Because it’s a miracle that my boyfriend who doesn’t really like dogs got me a dog for christmas.” Cas gives Dean a gummy smile. 

“Yeah, well I saw the way you played with Anna’s new dog the other day and you were so happy. I wanted you to be happy like that all the time.” Dean mumbles and looks away embarrassed. Cas sets the puppy on the floor and climbs into Dean’s lap, pulling his face around for a deep kiss.

“I love you” he sighs after they break away from each other's mouths. 

“I love you too Cas” Dean smiles and kisses him some more, until a small energetic animal forces her way between them so she can get attention too.

“And we love you too Miracle.”


	18. December 18th

“Dad tilt the screen” Sam sighs at the view of his parents' foreheads. John moves the computer screen down and Sam can see their eyes now but the screen still needs to be tilted. He groans. Can’t they see that they’re not in the frame? 

“Tilt it a little more,” Sam says again but his parents ignore him. “Mom?” Sam tries but she just looks confused. “Tilt the screen”

Suddenly their voices are coming through but they’ve stopped the video.

“Why can’t we hear him John?” His mother asks. 

“I don’t know, is the volume turned down?” Sam can hear his father pressing random keys on the keyboard. 

“Dad you turned off the video” Sam tries but still nothing. He closes his eyes and takes a steadying breath through his nose. His parents really aren’t that old; he doesn’t understand why they have such a hard time figuring out video calls. 

Their image comes back and he can see them squinting at the screen. Then he sees his brother in the background and waves him over.

“Dean!” He calls and his brother saunters over. He says something to their parents but Sam can’t hear it and when he hovers over their window he can see they’re muted. His mother is saying something to the computer and then she looks back at Dean who shrugs. 

“You’re on mute!” Sam says loudly as if speaking louder will fix all of their problems. His dad pokes at the keys some more and the video stops for a few seconds before it comes back. Sam hangs his head. 

He should have known this would be a disaster. The second he’d called his parents to let them know he wouldn’t make it home this year because his flight was canceled after a massive snow storm that had no intention of stopping any time soon. He’d taken the refund for his ticket and called his parents. It was his mother that suggested doing a video call after dinner. 

“Sam are you there?” His dad’s voice booms through his laptop speakers. 

“Yeah” Sam smiles and he’s about to tell his dad to tilt the screen again when he sees Dean reach forward and do it. Finally he can see their faces. His mother beams.

“Sammy!” She practically coos at him. It instantly reminds him of the way she would say his name when he was little. 

“Hi mom” he waves.

“Hey bitch” 

“Dean!” Mary chides and swats Dean’s arm. 

“What?” he rubs his arm dramatically and gives Sam a look through the screen.”See what happens when you’re not here?” 

“Don’t expect me to believe they’re not catering to your every whim.” Sam scoffs at his brother. 

“Well, your mother is.” John says and Mary gives him a light shove. 

“Oh like you never dote on the boys when they come home to visit.” She chides him. 

“I do no such thing.”

“Dude, do you see what you left me to deal with?” Dean grumbles and Sam gives him a look that says ‘sorry, not sorry’”

“How are you honey?” Mary gives up arguing with her husband and focuses on her youngest. 

“I’m fine, just hanging out in my dorm waiting for the snow to let up.” Sam gives her an unconvincing smile.

“Is it really bad there?” She asks him.

“We’ve gotten about a foot since the last time I spoke to you and it’s still going. I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re snowed in by morning.”

“Do you have enough to eat? Are you going to be ok?” His mother is worried now. 

“Yeah I’ll be ok. I’ve got some cereal and poptarts and the dining hall will be open in the morning for breakfast. I’ll have to hike through the snow to get there but it’s not that far.” 

“I wish you’d taken an earlier flight. Then you’d be here having a home cooked meal and your family and you wouldn’t be stuck in that awful snow storm all alone.” 

“Don’t guilt trip the boy Mary.” John grumbles at her “I’m pretty sure he already feels bad about it without your help.”

“I wasn’t ‘guilt tripping’ him. If I wanted to do that I would have reminded him that I told him to come out on the 21st instead of waiting until the 24th.” She argues. Sam can see his brother roll his eyes behind her back. 

“I had to work.” Sam defends himself. 

“Ok let's not argue. It’s christmas.” Dean breaks in before they really get started. 

“You’re right honey. We don’t need to talk about this now.” Mary agrees with him and then smiles “So, tell us about this new girlfriend of yours.” 

Sam groans.

“She’s not my girlfriend, we’ve been on three dates. Who told you about her anyways?” Sam asks and then he sees his brother's face and realises who it was. “Dean” 

“What, I wanted to get them to stop talking about me and you weren’t here so…” Dean says it as if it was the most obvious solution to get his parents to stop asking about his love life. 

“She’s not my girlfriend.” Sam reiterates. 

“Coulda fooled me” Sam glares at Dean in a silent ‘keep it up and I’ll tell them about the guy you’ve been hooking up with for almost three months’ way. Dean glares right back almost like he’s daring him to do it but when Sam doesn’t back down Dean surrenders. Their parents notice the silent exchange but they don’t fully understand it. 

The rest of the call is filled with polite conversation about work and school and Sam finds that the tight feeling in his chest that had started when his flight was canceled, is starting to let up. He’d missed his parents. Dean was only a couple hours away and he saw him regularly but his parents were several states away and with school and work he only got to see them a couple times a year. They end the call with promises to talk soon and his mother promises to send his gifts home with Dean. He’d sent his parents gifts with Dean the week before because he wanted to drive home instead of fly and it just made more sense for Dean to take the gifts instead of them taking up space in Sam’s carryon. His mother had even insisted on opening them in front of the camera during their call so Sam could see their reactions. 

Sam closes his laptop and pours himself a bowl of cereal. It’s the first christmas he’s ever spent away from his family and even though he literally just saw them he’s still feeling a little down. His phone chimes then and the screen lights up with a text from Jessica. 

Jess: I know you said you were flying out to see your parents today but I’m guessing you probably ended up in the same boat as me and your flight got canceled. 

Sam: You guessed correctly

Jess: You got any plans tomorrow?

Sam: I might brave the snow for breakfast in the dining hall

Sam: Why?

Jess: Mind if I join you? I hear they’re doing woffles.

Sam: It’s a date

Sam smiles at his phone. He’s trying really hard not to imagine celebrating next christmas with Jess and introducing her to his family. It’s way too early for that but his heart doesn’t seem to care.


	19. December 19th

Cas gripped his son’s hand tightly as they waited in line. The boy bounces energetically from foot to foot and Cas knew if he loosened his grip the child would be running circles around him and the rest of the mall patrons. 

“Daddy I see Santa!” Jack bounced up excitedly and pointed to the jolly man.

“Yep, it’s almost our turn.” Cas smiled down at him.

He looked back up at the mall santa sitting on the overstuffed chair next to a large christmas tree. Cas smiled in approval. Even from this distance, he could see that this guy was leagues above the guy that played Santa the previous year. Jack had been so excited last year that he could not sit still long enough for a picture and Santa hadn’t had the patience to deal with him. He wasn’t rude or anything but he didn’t seem at all interested in conversing with the child. Before Jack even really had a chance to tell Santa what he wanted, the man was handing him a candy cane and passing him off to an elf to be returned to his parents. Luckily for Castiel the three year old was easily distracted by the candy. Jack might not be distracted as easily this year so Cas was glad it was a different Santa. 

They got to the front of the line and an elf crouched down to Jack's level and asked him what his name was and if he was excited to meet Santa. Jack nodded vigorously and started telling the elf about all the toys he wanted for christmas. When it was their turn the elf escorted Jack to the chair and helped him climb up on Santa’s knee. Cas snapped a few pictures and stood off to the side while his son launched into a detailed list of toys he liked. Santa sat with him for several minutes, completely absorbed in what the boy was saying. And when Jack’s monologue didn’t appear to be letting up Santa gently steered the conversation back to what Jack wanted Santa to bring him. Jack looked around until he spotted his dad and then he turned back to Santa and whispered something that Cas couldn't hear. Santa looked at Jack with a soft smile and said something quietly. Jack nodded and looked over at Cas again. Santa followed his gaze and suddenly his eyes were locked on Cas’ then he said something else to Jack who nodded. From his position off to the side he couldn’t hear any of their hushed conversation but he could see a spark of admiration in the other man’s eyes when he’d looked at him. 

Jack bounced over to him and slipped his tiny hand into Castiel’s just a moment later. He had a red and white candy cane in his other hand and he smiled up at his father. 

“You ready to go?” Cas asked him.

“Yes.” 

“Did you tell Santa what you wanted for christmas?”

“Mmhmm” Jack hummed as he tried to pull the wrapper off his candy with his teeth. Cas grummaced and held his hand out for the candy cane.

“Let me open that for you.” Jack handed it to him and he tried not to make a face at the slimy plastic as he ripped it open and pulled it down to expose part of the candy. Jack took it back and stuck it in his mouth.

They did a little window shopping and Cas let Jack drag him through a couple toy stores before they piled back into the car and drove home. Castiel tried to get Jack to tell him what he’d asked Santa for a couple times but the boy was either pretending not to hear him or he was genuinely distracted by the toys. Cas couldn’t get a solid answer out of him. 

\-----------------

Castiel was late for work and Jack was throwing a tantrum in the middle of the coffee shop. It wasn’t Cas’ normal coffee shop near the elementary school. Jack’s school had let out for winter break that week and Cas usually sent Jack next door to stay with their neighbor while he was at work but she’d slipped in her driveway the day before and broken her hip. He hadn’t been able to find anyone who could take the kid all day. His sister Anna said she could watch him in the afternoon but she had to work the morning shift. So Cas found himself hauling a grumpy, half asleep, child to the coffee shop on the way to work. 

“I don’t want orange juice.” Jack wailed as Cas tried to hand him the cup of juice and a bagel.

“You like orange juice.” Cas argued. He knew better than to try and reason with an emotional four year old but Jack was a pretty level headed child most days. And he truly did like orange juice, he was just tired and cranky from being woken up too early. 

“I don’t want it.” Jack cried and shoved Cas’ hand away, orange juice sloshed over the rim.

“Do you like apple juice?” A voice behind Cas asked. Jack stopped crying and looked at the man behind his father and gave a small nod.

Cas turned to see a tall man with familiar eyes standing over him, he was holding a coffee cup in one hand and a cup of juice in the other. 

“I’ll tell you what kid, if your dad says it’s ok, I’ll trade you my apple juice for your orange juice.” The man smiles at Jack and then turns his eyes on Cas. 

“Oh, um, that--that’s not necessary.” Cas stammared. 

“I don’t mind” the stranger assured him. Cas hesitated. He shouldn’t let his child drink something from a complete stranger but the man seemed so sincere and he’d stopped Jack’s tantrum dead in its tracks. Cas caught sight of the clock on the wall behind the man and internally cursed. He was so late. 

“Uh sure.” Cas says, the man hands Jack the apple juice and then takes the orange juice Cas offers him. The side of the cup is a little sticky as is Cas’ hand but the man doesn’t seem to notice or care. 

“Thanks” Cas says but the man just shrugs it off with a bright smile. 

“No problem. You two have a good day.” He waves and saunters off to grab a lid and straw for his juice. Cas looks at Jack’s cup and the dribbles of apple juice sliding down the corners of his mouth and wetting his shirt. He grabs a lid and straw for Jack too and then ushers him out the door. 

Later that day he’ll berate himself for just accepting a drink from a stranger like that. A drink for his kid no less. It really was stupid and recless but he’d been so flustered and taken off guard. He was just happy there hadn’t been anything harmful in the drink. At least, not that he knew of. Jack was fine, not ill or anything so it must have been fine. Cas groans and thumps his head against his desk. Kelly would have never let her child eat or drink anything offered to him by a stranger. 

The memory of his friend, Jack’s mother, still causes him pain. Especially on days when he feels like he’s failing her. When he’d agreed to be Jack’s guardian if anything ever happened to her he hadn’t expected her to die just a few days later. Jack was only a couple days old when Kelly invited Cas to come and meet him and that was when she asked if he would be Jack's guardian. She’d almost died giving birth to Jack and it had scared her, so as soon as she got out of the hospital she’d called up a lawyer and set up her will. She told Cas she’d named him as Jack’s guardian but if he wasn’t comfortable with it she could change it. He’d assured her that he was fine with it and then the next day she was rushed to the hospital. She’d gotten an infection from the complications during Jack’s birth and it hadn’t been detected early enough. It spread to her lungs and she was put on a ventilator but by that point the damage was too extensive. She’d died after a couple days in the ICU and Cas went home with a newborn baby. 

\--------------

Anna picks up Jack from Cas’ office a little after one thirty and watches him for the rest of the afternoon and the rest of the week follows the same pattern. Jack is a good kid and he sits quietly in Cas’ office and colors or plays with his trains while Cas works. His boss was hesitant about the boy being there the first couple days but when he sees that it’s not impeding Cas’ ability to work he allows it. 

They’ve also run into the juice swapper two times at the coffee shop. The second time they see him waiting in line for his coffee, Jack runs over to show him the pictures he’d colored the day before. The man crouches down and examines each picture with interest. 

“Wow, these are really good. Are you a professional artist?” He asks and Jack grins with pride.

“Yes, would you like to buy one?” Jack asks and Cas almost has a heart attack.

“Jack!” Cas admonishes and turns to the man, “You don’t have to--” He starts but the man just laughs and pulls a couple of dollars out of his wallet. 

“What one can I get for…” He counts the bills and then digs out some change and counts that too “three dollars and fifteen cents?” He asks and Jack deliberates for a moment. He settles on a picture that’s mostly light green with a few patches of dark green and brown mixed in. The man takes the picture and looks at it closely.

“Oh, I’m so glad I could afford this one. It’s absolutely stunning, the way you captured the grass and the trees.” the man gushes and hands the money over to Jack, who stuffs it in his pocket. 

“It’s the park by daddy’s work.” Jack informs him and the man smiles. Cas hadn’t been able to make out what the picture was supposed to be but now that he knew it was the park he could see that the darker blobs of green and brown were trees. 

It’s his turn to order so he stands back up and waves goodbye. “See you around Jack” He says and Jack waves back “And Jack’s dad” He winks at Cas and then turns to the barista. Cas’ face flushes hot for a moment before he quickly ushers Jack out the door and to the office. 

The third time they see the man Cas turns away from Jack to place his order at the counter when the child takes off toward the door. Cas isn’t fast enough to get a hold of his hand but when he turns to follow he sees Jack skid to a stop in front of the drink swapping art connoisseur. The barista clears her throat and he quickly finishes his order, keeping an eye on his kid. Jack is bouncing around the man while he waits in line and instead of looking annoyed he’s chatting animatedly with the kid. 

“Jack it’s time to go.” Cas tells him after their order is ready and Jack looks downcast. 

“Daddy, can Dean come to work with us. I promise we’ll play extra quiet and not make a mess.” Jack looks up with pleading eyes and reaches up to grab a hold of the man’s arm.

Dean starts to stutter “Uh, Jack buddy I, Uh, I have to go to my own job.” 

“Do you get to color and play trains there or do you have to read lots and lots of papers like daddy?” Jack asks him and Dean chuckles. 

“I do have to read a lot of papers but I also get to build things.” He ruffles Jack's hair and gently nudges him toward his father “I’ll see you around kiddo.” 

Jack reluctantly leaves the shop with his dad. 

“Daddy can Dean come play with us this weekend?” Jack asks a few minutes later. Cas considers the request. He doubts an attractive guy like that, would want to hang out with him and his kid on the weekend. They barely even know each other but for some reason Jack has connected to him. Jack is a friendly child and he is not shy at all but it’s weird for him to latch onto one person like this. Usually he’d be saying hello to everyone in the coffee shop but the second he sees Dean it’s like no one else exists. 

“It’s christmas this weekend. He’s probably going to spend time with his family just like you and me are going to go visit grandma and grandpa.” Cas explains and Jack looks sad for a moment before he perks up.

“I’ll ask him next weekend.” 

\------------------

They don’t see Dean again that week and then it’s christmas eve and Cas finds himself at the mall with Jack, yet again, dragging him to the line for Santa.

“Didn’t you already tell Santa what you want?” Cas asks warily. He’d hoped to avoid the mall but he’d realised last minute that he hadn’t gotten a gift for his brother Gabriel. He’d seen something at the mall the last time they were there but he hadn’t bought it because he thought he could find a cheaper one online. He couldn’t. So he’d dragged Jack to the mall on christmas eve with the vain hope that they could get in, get what they needed, and get out in under thirty minutes. 

Jack is adamant about seeing Santa again because he needs to change his wish and that’s all he’ll tell Cas. They get to the front of the line and when Santa’s eyes lock on Jack he breaks into a wide grin. 

“Jack, I didn’t expect to see you back so soon.” Santa calls to the boy and Cas has the distinct impression that he knows the person behind the beard. He runs through a mental list of who the voice could belong to but he can’t match it to a face. Absent-mindedly he’s surprised that the mall santa even remembered his kids name after several days. 

“Santa, I changed my mind.” Jack runs up to him and climbs into his lap.

“Oh, you did?”

“Yeah, I don’t need a mommy for christmas. I just want my friend Dean to come play trains with me and daddy.” Jack tells him and Cas is a little taken aback. “Would that be easier?” Jack asks him.

Santa looks stunned for a moment and then his eyes start to shimmer with unshed tears. 

“Yeah buddy, that would be an easier gift to give you.” Santa clears his throat “I’ll have a talk with your friend and your daddy to set up a playdate” 

“Thanks Santa” Jack hops off his lap and runs over to his dad. “Ok we can go now.” 

Cas stands rooted on the spot, staring at Santa. He’s finally matched the voice with a face. He’s not sure if he should be creeped out with the whole situation or if he should wait until he’s spoken to the man before he decides how he feels about it. 

An elf taps him on the shoulder, gaining his attention, and hands him a slip of paper with a number and the name Dean scrawled across it. There’s a small note at the bottom that reads ‘let me explain’ Cas looks up and catches his eye, giving him a short nod.

After their trip to the mall Cas makes dinner, bribes Jack to eat most of it, wrangles him into a bath where they both come out soaked, and tucks him in bed. After five stories that is. Then he calls the number on the slip of paper that’s been burning a hole in his pocket all afternoon. 

“Hello” the voice on the phone chimes after three rings. 

“Dean, this is Castiel,” Cas says before he realises that he should clarify “Jack’s dad”

“Oh, uh hey, Castiel” Cas can hear how nervous the other man is. 

“You wanted me to call you.”

“Yeah, uh… Listen, I wasn’t following you. I recognized you at the coffee shop that first time and I knew you didn't recognize me so I didn’t say anything. I honestly never thought I’d run into you again after that. But then you were there the next day and the next day and by that point it felt too awkward, ya know?” Dean rambles and Cas has to admit, he understands what the guy means. 

“And then I knew you recognized me at the mall and I had to explain because I didn’t want you to be freaked out or think I was some freak that preys on children. I promise I have no ill intentions toward your kid. But I also will understand it if you tell me to stay away from him and never contact you again and I’ll respect your wishes.”

“What did Jack ask for the first time?” Cas finds himself asking. He has a bunch of questions he could ask but for some reason that one has been gnawing at him since he’d heard Jack tell Santa/Dean that he didn’t need a mommy.

“Oh, he uh, asked if I could help him find a mommy because his daddy really missed his mommy and it made him sad sometimes when he talked about her.” Tears well up in Cas’ eyes. 

“Really?” 

“Yeah, sorry by the way, about your wife.” Dean says and Cas gives a sad little laugh.

“Kelly wasn’t my wife, just a very good friend.” He explains but doesn’t go into more details.

“Oh, sorry” Dean’s clearly at a loss for what to say.

“So what are we going to do about his new wish?” 

“I don’t know, what do you want to do?” Dean hesitates. He doesn’t want to overstep any more than he already has. 

“Well, having a playdate with a new friend is a helluva lot easier and more likely than a new mommy” Cas chuckles “only if you want to thogut.” He ads quickly. 

“No, I’d...I’d like that.” Cas can hear Dean’s smile over the phone.

“Are you free next weekend?” Cas asks, shocking even himself with how forward it sounds. 

“Yeah, I’m free next saturday. My Santa job will be over after this week so I’ll have my weekends back.”

“Ok then it’s a date. Be prepared for long hours of train tracks that span the entire living room and dining room, and a shit ton of trains.” Cas warns him “We take trains very seriously in our house.”

“Duly noted” Den smiles as they solidify their plans. 

There is indeed a very serious train situation when he gets to the address Cas gave him. When he’d said the tracks covered the living room and dining room he forgot to mention the kitchen and hallway as well. 

They play trains for hours and then they order a pizza and watch some cartoons. Dean thinks he could get used to something like this but he doesn’t let the thought linger for long. He hasn’t even asked Castiel on a date yet, doesn’t even know if he’s into guys. He’s got time to figure it out though. He’s got a fresh new year on the horizon and he thinks there’s no better time to start something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was just going to be a one shot but I liked the story line and I might expand on it and do a longer fic. I don't know, but if anyone is interested in that I might do it after the christmas countdown is over.


	20. December 20th

Chaos, the bunker is in utter chaos. Dean is throwing jackets and shoes at people telling them to put them on. Cas is trying to find his phone which just so happens to be in his hand. Sam runs back and forth with a duffle bag throwing in things they really don’t need like salt and red spray paint. And Eileen is standing in the middle of it all looking royally pissed off. She’s tried to get their attention multiple times but they don’t seem to hear her over the noise they're all making. Jack seems to be the only calm one. He’d quietly escorted Jody, Donna, and the girls out to their cars and told them they’d call when things calmed down. Then he’d answered the call from Charlie, telling them she and Stevie were running late, and told her that plans had changed and they would see them on another day. 

He walked back into the bunker and gently tapped Eileen on the shoulder. When she turned to him he signed that they should probably go and she nodded in agreement. Jack placed a steadying hand on her shoulder and let her grip his other hand while he guided her to the garage. She winced every so often and had to stop once to take a breath but they eventually made it to the car. 

“Do you think they even noticed us leaving?” She asks him through clenched teeth and before he can answer the other three men burst through the garage door. 

Sam slides into the back seat next to her and takes over holding her hand and rubbing soothing circles into her back. Dean and Cas pile into the front and then they're off. 

Five minutes later, yes Dean was speeding, they pulled into the hospital parking lot and around to the front entrance. Jack jumps out and runs to grab a wheelchair while Sam and Cas help Eileen out of the car. They get her settled and then wheel her inside while Dean parks baby. 

“Hello, my name is Sam winchester and my wife is in labor.” Sam tells the woman behind the check in desk. She looks at the clearly pregnant woman in the wheelchair behind him flanked by two guys and a third guy runs in and joins them. 

“OK, what’s your wife's name sir?” She starts typing and asking questions about Eileen and who her doctor is and then tells him she’ll get a nurse to show them to a room.

The nurse calls out Eileen’s name and four men jump up out of their seats. Eileen stays seated. The nurse gives them a look but waves them over. “Are all of you coming?” 

They look at each other and collectively agree that Dean, Jack and Cas should stay in the waiting room. Sam wheel’s Eileen down the hall behind the nurse. 

“She’ll be ok right? I mean people do this all the time.” Dean asks as he stares at the door Sam and Eileen disappeared behind. 

“She should be fine, it’s a natural process that her body knows how to handle. Plus she’ll have a medical team and Sam in case any complications arise.” Cas assures him but even he looks a little nervous. 

The last time they were in this position, waiting around for a baby to be born, things went pear shaped pretty fast and the woman giving birth didn’t make it. None of them say it but they all think it. They know it’s different this time. Unlike Kelly, Eileen is giving birth to a normal human baby so her risk of death is a helluva lot lower. But even with that knowledge they’re nervous. It’s the reason Sam, Dean and Cas all lost their cool when Eileen announced that her water had broken in the middle of their family dinner on christmas eve. 

Three hours pass and they’re each allowed to go in and visit with Eileen while they wait. Dean was hesitant when Sam asked him if he wanted to see her. He was expecting blood and gore and lots of screaming but what he saw was a clean room and some machines beeping away while Eileen chewed on some ice chips. He chatted with her for a good half hour, stopping periodically when a contraction hit and she’d have to take slow steady breaths through clenched teeth. Nurses busseled in and out to check on her. When Sam asked what was taking so long the nurse just gave him an indulgent smile and asked if it was their first. At his nod she proceeded to tell him that the first one usually took the longest and it could be a while. 

A while, it seemed, turned out to be fifteen hours. They all took turns napping and holding Eileen's hand, bringing her ice chips, or just keeping her company. When the doctor announced it was time to push the nurses ushered everyone but Sam out of the room and again they waited. 

It wasn’t more than an hour later when Sam burst into the waiting room with a large grin on his face. 

“It’s a girl!” He cheers and the handful of people in the waiting room clap at his news. “We have a girl, and she’s perfect guys. You have to come see her.” He and Eileen had chosen not to know the sex of their baby before she was born. Eileen said she liked the idea of a surprise. 

When they walk into the room behind Sam they see Eileen propped up in her hospital bed with a soft bundle cradled to her chest. She looks tired and worn out but she’s got a smile wider than the grand canyon on her face. She looks up at them and waves them over.

“Come in, come in. Meet the newest member of our family.” The four men hover around her bed and Dean is the first one to reach down and gently stoke a tiny hand with his finger. 

“What name did you decide on?” He asks and the small hand wraps around his finger in a surprisingly tight grip.

“Lucie.” Eileen grins down at the baby.

“Lucie means light” Cas says with a nod of approval “Her soul is definitely one of the brightest i’ve ever seen.” 

“Best christmas present ever.” Jack says when he gets a good look at her. 

“You got that right.” Dean agrees.

They take turns holding the newest Winchester and then they leave to let mother and baby get some rest. Sam tells them they can go home and get some sleep as well and Dean pulls him into a hug.

“I’m happy for you Sammy” he pats him on the shoulder and if he has to surreptitiously wape away a tear before he lets go of the hug, well, that’s nobody’s business but his own. “You know what this means? I get to be the cool uncle now.” 

Sam gives his brother a wary look because he can imagine all of the things he might teach his daughter and not all of them are good. “Don’t corrupt my child Dean.” He warns but Dean is already making plans. His niece is going to be the most badass baby on the planet if he has anything to say about it.


	21. December 21st

“What was the address again?” Dean drives baby slowly down the street trying to see the numbers on the houses. 

“325 South Prescott Street” Sam tells him and then points at a house to their left. “I think it’s that one”

“The one that’s lit up like it’s christmas?” Dean asks incredulously. 

“It is christmas, Dean.”

“You know what I meant,” Dean parks the car. “With all those lights on it’s gonna be next to impossible to get in unseen.”

“It’s like two in the morning. I highly doubt anyone is awake right now. I think we’ll be fine.” Sam’s argument is pretty sound. They creep across the lawn and up to a window that’s partially obscured by some bushes. Dean notices that there’s no crime scene tape on the door but thinks that maybe the police took it down. From what Dean was able to learn at the morgue the man’s death was ruled a suicide. 

Sam gimmys the window open quietly and hauls himself through. It’s a tight squeeze but he manages ok. Dean struggles a little bit more, he’s not as tall as Sam and his forty year old bones aren’t what they used to be. He grunts when he pulls himself through and then loses his grip and nearly crashes down to the floor face first. Sam’s lightning fast reflexes stop him from face planting. Dean regrets making fun of his brother for all the time he spends running and eating rabbit food, because it’s apparently helped him stay in shape enough for their job. Not that he’ll ever admit that outloud. 

“So they found him in his living room with a string of lights wrapped around his neck.” Sam looks around the hallway they’re standing in, trying to figure out which way the living room is.

“Are we thinking witch or angry spirit?” 

“Well the deaths have all occurred in different parts of town so I don’t think it’s a spirit. I mean, most spirits are connected to a place so it’s less likely to be a spirit.” Sam tells him, just as they round a corner and see a lit up christmas tree. 

“It could be connected to an object, that could explain how it’s moving around.” Dean points out. “Dude why is the tree lit up in an empty house?” He pokes at one of the ornaments hanging on the branches. 

“That’s true, I’m still leaning more toward witch, we should look for hex bags.” He starts pulling aside the couch cushions and throw pillows to see if there’s a hex bag hidden behind them. “Maybe he had the tree lights on a timer or something. Or nobody turned them off after they found the body.” He doesn’t find anything in the couch so he moves to an armchair.

“Maybe” Dean mumbles and starts poking through the stockings.

“Are you going to help me look for a hex bag? We’ll get done a lot faster with both of us looking.” Sam gripes while he swipes his hand across the bottom of the chair.

“Sam, how many kids did this guy have?” Dean’s still looking at the stockings hanging above the fireplace. 

“Uh, just the one. Why?” 

“There are five stockings.” Dean points at them and Sam looks up in confusion.

“Why are there five?”

“I don’t know that’s why I asked you. How old is his kid? Maybe the extra stockings are for grandchildren or something.” Dean examines the presents under the tree a little more closely. 

“His kid is twelve.” 

“Sam, I think we’re in the wrong house.” Dean looks up from the present’s he’s examining and makes eye contact with a wide eyed little girl standing in the doorway behind Sam. “Shit” 

“You’re not Santa.” She tells them in a very matter of fact voice. Sam whips around at the small voice and freezes. At least she didn’t scream, Dean thinks.

“Uh no, we’re not, we’re actually um...police officers.” Dean improvises. “Yeah, and we’re in your house because…” He can’t think of a good reason.

“Because a bad man has been stealing people’s christmas presents and we” He gestures to himself and Dean “are going to everyone’s houses and making sure all of their gifts are still there.” Sam explains to the child, hoping she’s young enough to believe him. 

“Like the grinch?” She asks excitedly.

“Yes, just like the grinch.” Dean tells her.

“But the grinch told Cindy-Lou Who he was fixing her tree and he lied he was taking it. Are you like the grinch and you’re actually gonna take my presents?” She narrows her eyes at them and Sam silently curses under his breath. 

“No, we’re not lying,” Dean says and he doesn’t sound convincing at all. The girl gives him an intense stare down. “I promise, we didn’t take any of your presents, we were just making sure they’re still here. And now that we know they are, we’re gonna leave.” He tells her and starts backing toward the door. Hegrips Sam’s sleeve and pulls him along with him.

“Uh, yeah, everything’s all good. Why don’t you lock the door after we leave and then run on back to bed?” Sam gives her his most reassuring smile.

“Ok” 

Sam and Dean carefully shut the door behind them, not wanting to wake up any other members of the family, and then book it to the car.

“What the hell man.” Dean says as they’re driving away.

“I don’t know, maybe we have the wrong address.” He pulls out the slip of paper he’d scribbled the guy’s information on and then his face flushes a deep crimson.

“Give me that.” Dean snatches the paper out of his hand and scans it quickly. Sam resists the urge to tell Dean to keep his eyes on the road. 

“235 South Prescott Street, Dude, you switch the numbers.” Dean grumbles and Drives down the street to the correct address, the crime scene tape across the door confirms it.


	22. December 22nd

Bobby paces the length of his kitchen, periodically glancing at the clock. He’d called Rufus two hours ago and the man still hadn’t shown up. Ask him to help dig up a corpse and he’s there before you hang up, but ask him to help watch two sleeping children and he takes his sweet ass time. 

John had dropped off his boys three days ago while he tracked down a werewolf. They’d been having fun playing in the snow and watching cartoons but their dad still hadn’t returned and it was Christmas eve. Little Sammy asked Bobby if Santa would be able to find them this year. Dean stepped in when Bobby didn’t seem to have an answer and told Sammy that Santa would try to find them but sometimes it was hard when they moved around so much. Bobby felt bad for the kid who, by all rights, should still believe in Santa himself. But here he was knowing Santa wasn’t real and doing his best to not spoil it for his brother. 

After the boys were asleep Bobby had called Rufus and asked if he’d mind keeping an eye on them while he ran to the store. He wasn’t planning on being gone more than an hour or so and the kids were asleep so Rufus really wouldn’t have to do much. When he explained that he needed to get them gifts from Santa Rufus finally relented. So that’s how Bobby found himself waiting for the insufferable man to show up, hopefully before all the stores closed. 

The knock at the door startled him and he rushed over to answer it before Rufus knocked again and woke up the boys.

“The hell are you doing? You’ll wake them up with all the racket.” Bobby hissed as he opened the door. 

“It’s not my fault if they can’t sleep through a little noise.” 

“But if you wake them up you’ll have to deal with them. If you’re quiet you can just sit here, drink a beer and watch tv while I’m gone.” Bobby pointed out and Rufus’ eyes widened in understanding. 

Bobby wandered up and down the isles of the superstore trying to find something Sam and Dean would like. He didn’t know anything about children or what they liked to play with. Granted John’s children were more like mini adults, especially Dean. They’d probably be excited to get ammo or a new pocket knife. The thought set off a lightbulb in his head. Dean was nine years old and in this one regard he was like any other nine year old who would really be excited about a new knife. 

Bobby searched through the camping and fishing section of the store and found a pretty decent tactical knife and a whetstone. He was pleased with himself. Dean would like it now he just needed to get something for the little one. 

He wandered through the toys isles at a complete loss when a young woman finally took pity on him.

“Boy or Girl?” She asked. Bobby was wary of her at first but she seemed genuinely interested in helping him so he answered.

“A five year old boy.” 

“Oh that’s a fun age” She nodded toward the toy cars and trains. “When my oldest was that age he loved toy cars and so did most of his friends. Trains too. Or if that doesn’t work you could try toy swords, guns, lightsabers, anything that makes a noise or a mess, coloring books, balls, pretty much anything really. Five year olds are pretty easy to please.” 

Bobby nodded at her suggestions and then caught sight of a little rocket ship. He remembered how excited Sam got about that cartoon with the alien in it. So he grabbed that and thanked the woman for her help. On his way to the check out he saw a display of candy and small toys labeled ‘Stocking stuffers’ and quickly grabbed a couple stockings and some candy to put in them. He remembered his mother setting out their stockings when he was a child. He briefly wondered if he should get a christmas tree too but decided against it. 

After he got home and relieved Rufus from babysitting duty he realised he had forgotten wrapping paper. He searched through his closets and was just about to give up and use newspaper when he found a roll of shiny red and green paper buried in the back of his closet. His wife must have put it there, probably after their last christmas before that demon possessed her. He runs his thumb over the slippery paper and for just a moment he allows himself to miss her. Then he wraps the gifts and stuffs the stockings and silently creeps in to place them at the foot of the spare bed that he’d tucked both boys into. 

He paused for a moment to watch their little faces as they slept, Dean curled protectively around Sam. They looked so innocent and vulnerable. Not that they didn’t always look innocent and vulnerable, but something about sleep made it more apparent just how young they were. 

Bobby woke at the crack of dawn to a child shouting excitedly as his bedroom door was flung open and suddenly an energetic five year old was bouncing on his bed. The kid was lucky Bobby didn’t start shooting the second he burst through the door. Dean ran in after his brother and tried to pull him away from Bobby. He knew the dangers of waking a hunter in such a sudden way. Sam would not be deterred though.

“Uncle Bobby, Santa came, Santa came!” Sam bounced on his legs and Bobby grabbed at his arms to hold him still.

“Sammy, uncle Bobby was sleeping, you shouldn’t wake people up like that.” Dean admonished his brother. Bobby Sat up and settled the child next to him on the bed.

“Now what’s all this about Santa?” Bobby rasps and clears his throat. 

“Santa came, he was able to find us here.” Sam says excitedly and then holds up his rocket ship “Look what he brought me.”

“Wow” Bobby says to the toy shoved unceremoniously into his face. 

“He brought us candy too.” Sam tells him. 

“Is that so?” He asks and then catches Dean’s eye.

“What did Santa bring you?” He asks with a knowing smile.

“A new knife.” Dean tries to act casual but Bobby can see the excitement behind the boy’s eyes.

“Oh that will be useful.” Bobby tells him with a smile and Dean gives him a shy smile back.

“Yeah it will be, it’s super sharp and it has this part that attaches to your belt so I can carry it with me wherever I go.” Dean gets more excited as he talks about his gift and it warms Bobby’s heart. 

“Well what do you boys say to breakfast?” Bobby stretches and plops Sam on the floor.

“Yeah!” Sam cheers “I’m starving” he rubs his little belly. Bobby chuckles at that and ushers the children into the kitchen to start breakfast. He finds himself hoping John will take his time, while he fries up some eggs. Sam is running around his kitchen with his rocket ship, making his own sound effects, and Dean stuffs two Reese's peanut butter cups in his mouth at once. 

Bobby can’t help but smile at the little snot nosed brats. He loves them quite a bit more than he’d ever admit outloud.


	23. December 23rd

Castiel groans when Charlie bounces into his office wearing a Santa hat and brandishing a plastic bowl full of paper scraps. 

“It’s your turn to pick a name Castiel” She singsongs as she waves the bowl in front of his face. 

“Do I have to?” he asks without looking away from the report he’s typing. 

“Yes, it’s company policy. You have to participate in the secret santa exchange at the christmas party.” She waves the bowl around again and he finally looks up at her.

“Seriously?” He arches an eyebrow at her like he’s not sure if it really is company policy or if she’s just saying that to get him to take a name. 

“Yes seriously. You know how much Adler likes tradition. The secret santa exchange is a long standing tradition here at Sandover Enterprises.” She shakes the names in the bowl for emphasis and he groans again. 

“Fine” he takes out a slip of paper and looks at the name. Dean Winchester.

“What’s with the face?” She asks and then tries to peer at the name on his paper “Who did you get?” He quickly hides it from her.

“It’s supposed to be secret isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but you didn’t look too happy with the name you got so who is it?” She sits on the edge of his desk and gives him a conspiratorial smile. 

“You’ll just have to wait and see.” Castiel tells her and then gently shoo’s her out of his office. 

\--------------

Dean stares down at the slip of paper he’d just pulled from Charlie’s bowl with a scowl. Castiel Novak. Dean’s had to work with the guy on a handful of projects and he’s got a serious case of ‘stick up the ass’. Dean groans inwardly and shoves the paper in his pocket. 

“Uh oh, did you get Becky again?” Charlie asks.

“No” Dean chuckles as he answers. He’d gotten Becky two years in a row and she’d been a little obsessive. That is, until the day she ran into him and Sam at the grocery store and her attention focused on the younger Winchester. “Though now that she’s set her sights on Sammy it would be a lot easier to pick a gift. Hell I could probably give her one of Sam’s socks and she’d love it.”

“I want to believe that you’re exaggerating but I know you're not.” Charlie sighs, “So if it’s not Becky, who else would make you grimace like that?” She taps her finger to her chin.

Dean rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “I’ll tell you later” he whispers and she gets the hint.

“Fine, see you tonight.” She bounces out of his office. 

“Yep, seven pm.” He calls after her but she’s already gone, probably accosting some other poor bastard. He looks at the slip of paper again and shakes his head.

He’d heard a lot of things about Castiel Novak when they’d hired him the year before. Supposedly he was some genius in the advertising world who had multiple degrees in psychology and cinematography and who knows what else. All those fancy degrees made him the hot commodity among advertising agencies because, not only was he creative but he could come up with visually stunning ads and commercials that targeted specific demographics. 

Dean had been excited to work with him, he’d even seen some of his past projects but the guy was nothing like Dean imagined. He was dull and awkward and he was overly obsessive about minute details. If Dean had to put it in simple terms he’d say the guy was a “control freak who needs to loosen the reigns a little.” 

\---------------

Castiel has been staring at Dean for a ridiculously long time. He’s sitting on Anna’s desk and chatting with her animatedly. Castiel finds himself desperately wishing he knew how to read lips so he could know what they’re saying. What business does Dean Winchester have with his secretary anyways? Dean looks up as if he could feel Castiel staring a hole through his head and their eyes lock for a moment. Castiel looks away, his cheeks flaming at being caught. 

Castiel wasn’t blind, Dean was a very attractive man and the first time they’d met he’d gotten so flustered that he could barely speak. Dean didn’t seem all that impressed with him after that and then the first project they worked on together was a complete disaster. Well, technically the project wasn’t a disaster, it had come out great. Dean’s impression of Castiel on the other hand... The presence of the unfairly attractive man turned Castiel's brain to mush and he thought it would be a good idea to show off his skills in a vain attempt to impress him. In retrospect he could see how his actions may have made him seem arrogant and controlling. And with every subsequent project they worked on together it just seemed to get worse. 

Dean didn’t even try to hide his dislike for Castiel, everyone knew they didn’t get along.

The next time Castiel looks up he sees that Dean is gone and he’s itching to ask Anna what they were talking about. He almost asks her when she drops off some files later that afternoon but chickens out. He’s never been one for office gossip and he doesn’t know what he’d say to her if she asked why he wanted to know. 

He spots Charlie when Anna leaves his office and he has a sudden idea. Charlie and Dean are friends, he can pump her for information on a gift Idea for Dean. Castiel rushes out of his office and catches up to the petite redhead in the breakroom. 

“Charlie, I have a question to ask you.” He says before he’s even thought of a way to ask her about Dean without her knowing he’s asking about Dean.

“You wanna know what to get Dean for secret santa.” She says bluntly and Castiel stares at her open mouthed. 

“How--” 

“Dude everyone else told me who they had, it wasn’t hard to figure out what name you drew.” Charlie says as she pours herself a cup of coffee. 

“Ok, yes, I was going to ask what I should get Dean.” Castiel decides to just be blunt about it. There’s no reason to hide it from her. 

“I can’t tell you what to get him. That’s cheating” She tells him with a mock serious face. 

“And knowing what name everyone drew isn’t?” They stare at each other for a long moment waiting to see who will break first. It’s Charlie.

“Dean’s a pretty simple man, he likes classic cars, old music, and cowboy boots.” Castiel nods, his mind already running through possible gift ideas.

“Ok, got it. Thank you Charlie.” He turns and walks back to his office, determined to get Dean the perfect gift. 

\-------------

“So what are you getting Castiel?” Charlie asks when Dean gets up to put in the next disk for their Lord of the Rings marathon. 

“I’ll tell you if you tell me who has my name.” He bargains but she just shakes her head,

“Not a chance Winchester.” He knows she won’t budge on that but he still asks her every time he sees her. 

“I don’t know man, probably just a stupid tie or something.” Dean flops down on the couch next to her and she gives him an unimpressed look. 

“I know you don’t like the guy but come one. You still got Becky a nice gift the second time, even when you knew she’d get all clingy again. You’re like one of the best gift givers because you actually do your research about the person and then put in the effort to get them a good gift.” 

“I put in the effort. His secretary Anna said he only has four ties that he wears on rotation. I’m getting him a fifth so he has one for each day of the week” Dean defends himself. He knows it’s a lame gift but he really hadn’t gotten much out of Anna and nobody else in the office really talked to him. Or rather, he didn’t really talk to anyone else in the office. 

“You still have a week, try harder.” 

“I don’t know what you want from me Char, the guy’s about as interesting as a fence post. He has no decorations in his office, his secretary could only tell me about his tie collection, which is also pretty pathetic, and he’s too self absorbed to talk to anyone else in the office. How am I supposed to find out anything about him. Let alone get him a gift?”

“Have you ever thought that maybe he’s just shy and he’s still the new guy in the office so he really hasn’t had the time to get to know anyone. Plus he just moved here from Philadelphia so he not only has to deal with a new job and new coworkers but also moving and trying to make friends in a new city,” Charlie says angrily and Dean stares at her like she’s grown a second head.

“How do you know all that?” 

“I actually took the time to talk to him.” Dean feels a little abashed when she says that. 

“Ok, I see your point. Do you have any suggestions for what I should get him?” He tries to look as repented as possible and maybe a little pathetic so she’ll take pity on him. 

“Well, he did say something about raising bees back in Philadelphia and how he misses it.” She shrugs “I don’t really know what he would like for a gift. Sorry.” 

“That’s ok, I think I might have an idea.” Dean tells her and starts tapping away at his phone looking for a store that would have what he wants.

“Glad I could be of service, now will you put that thing away so we can finish our movie?” 

\-----------

Dean walks into the decked out lobby of their office building with a neatly wrapped box tucked under his arm. Charlie rushes over to him and gives him a slip of paper with a number on it for the game. 

“So what did you get him?” She asks but he just shakes his head.

“You’ll just have to wait and see.” He grabs a drink and scans the party for the dark haired man. 

“You’re no fun” she pouts.

“I think I just saw Hannah enter, you should probably go give her a number.” He tells her and she immediately starts scanning the crowd, spotting Hanna talking to Becky. 

Dean watches her as she scurries off to pass out more numbers. She gets way too into the stupid holiday game. He spots Castiel standing by himself in a corner, nursing a drink and glancing at his watch. Dean thinks about his past interactions with the man and can see how he could have misinterpreted shyness for apathy and snobbishness.

Before he can think better of it he’s sidling up next to Castiel and making a comment about how boring work christmas parties are. The man looks up at him with a confused expression and mumbles something along the lines of an agreement. Before his talk with Charlie, Dean would have automatically assumed his lack of response was due to him thinking he was too good to talk to Dean. But now he can see how the guys hands were shaking slightly. He really was nervous talking to Dean, of all people. 

“Are you excited to see what your secret santa got you?” Dean asks, trying to strike up an actual conversation “I know the party is boring as fuck but they do know how to do secret santa gifts. The worst gift giver is probably Adler himself and his gifts really aren’t bad. They’re pretty high end, just very impersonal. Everyone else actually puts in an effort.”

“I hadn’t thought of who would have gotten my name.” Castiel looks a little worried when he says it.

“I hope they didn’t have to put in too much effort.” He bites his bottom lip and Dean has to fight the sudden urge to reach up and run his thumb across it. 

“Alright everyone it’s time to start the gift exchange. Find a seat and once everyone is settled we’ll start with the person that has number one.” Charlie calls out and everyone is quick to obey. They’d learned their lesson in previous years. 

Dean finds himself taking a seat next to Castiel while Charlie explains how things are going to go.

“So number one you get to give your gift first.” A small woman from HR stands up and walks over to Anna. She hands her a brightly wrapped box that contains a 3D wooden puzzle. Anna grins at the gift and thanks her warmly. The next number is called and they slowly work through each secret santa until it’s Castiel’s number. He doesn’t stand, he just thrusts his gift into Dean’s hands, not making eye contact. 

Dean stares at the shiny box in his hands and gives it a gentle shake. He can hear something shift in the box but can’t make out what it might be. He tears the paper away and opens the box to see a beautiful pair of brown leather boots. 

“I had to guess on the size. If it’s wrong the gift receipt is in the box.” Castiel is looking at him now and his cheeks are flaming red. Dean gives him a big goofy grin and immediately pulls off his shoes so he can try them on. They fit perfectly. 

“Thanks Cas” he says as he admires his new boots. Then someone else tells him he has to model them for everyone so he hops up and struts around the room, striking poses sporadically. He plops down in his chair a moment later and catches the way Cas is looking at him before he looks away.

After a few more people go it’s Dean’s turn and he turns to Cas with a gentle smile and hands him his gift.

“Merry christmas Cas.”

He slowly pulls the paper away from the box, careful not to tear it and then lifts the lid and a shy smile stretches across his face. 

“Thank you Dean, I love it.” He says quietly and everyone crane their necks to see what it is.

“Don’t leave us hanging dude, what did he get you?” Charlie says and there’s a murmur of agreement from the others.

Cas holds up a dark blue tie with little yellow bumble bees on it. Everyone else looks a little disappointed when they see it and Charlie even gives Dean a ‘you seriously got him a tie?’ look but Dean just mouths ‘later’ at her so she knows he’ll explain when they’re not surrounded by coworkers. 

The rest of their coworkers finish distributing their gifts until they’re all opened and then they disperse to find food and drinks. Castiel just runs a thumb across one of the tiny bees with a soft smile and Dean feels a little self conscious. 

“If you don’t like it you can exchange it for something else. The gift receipt is in the box” he tells him and Cas looks up shocked. 

“I said I loved it didn’t I?” He holds the scrap of fabric against his chest like he’s trying to protect it from Dean.

“Yeah but you might have just said that to be polite.” Dean scratches the back of his neck nervously.

“I wasn't,” Cas tells him matter of factly. “How did you know I liked bees?”

“Um Charlie said you used to raise bees before you moved here. I just took a chance and hoped you’d like it.” Dean shrugs. 

“Well thank you.”

“How did you know I wanted Cowboy boots?” Dean lifts his foot for emphasis. “And how did you know my size.”

“Charlie told me, and I guess on the size based on your height and build.”

“Oh” Dean nods and they sit awkwardly for a second.

“I’m sorry I’ve been such a dick to you.” Dean blurts out when the silence gets to be too much for him.

“Oh, um, I wouldn’t say that--.” Cas starts but Dean cuts him off.

“No, I have been. I was rude and I made assumptions and there’s no excuse for my behaviour. Can we start over?” Cas just nods wide eyed. 

“Hi, I’m Dean Winchester. I’ve heard a lot of great things about your work and I can’t wait to work with you.” 

“You have?” Cas asks shocked.

“Dude, Adler talked about your genius non stop before you were hired. Hell, he still talks about you constantly. I might have been a little intimidated when we were working on projects together.” Dean doesn’t know why he’s admitting to that last part but the look on Cas’ face makes it worth it

“You were intimidated by me?” He asks in disbelief. “Me?”

“Yeah dude, it’s not every day you get to work with a marketing genius.” Dean chuckles. 

“I’m not really a genius.” Cas mumbles and his cheeks go red. “And of the two of us I’m the least intimidating.” 

“I’m not intimidating,” Dean scoffs.

Cas raisis an incredulous eyebrow. “Right” 

“I’m not.” Dean argues and then he sees Charlie. “Hey Char, am I intimidating?” He asks her and she gives it a montents thought.

“Only on first impressions. Once you get to know someone you’re pretty chill.” She tells him and then continues in the direction she was headed. 

“Told you” Cas teases him and Dean stares back and forth between him and Charlie’s retreating figure. 

“Well, uh, sorry I guess.”

“It’s fine.” Cas reassures him with a genuine smile. Dean really likes it when he smiles.

“You want to go see what kinda food they got in this place? Maybe grab another drink?” He hooks a thumb over his shoulder toward the food. Cas nods and they spend the rest of the night talking and getting to know each other.

It turns out that Dean actually does like Cas. He just had to take the time to get to know the guy.


	24. December 24th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is an AU where Jack isn't fully grown after he's born. Sam, Dean, and Cas raise him like a normal child.

Dean, Sam, and Cas walk into the crowded gymnasium and search for open seats. They’d dropped Jack off in the hall with the rest of the kids in his class. His teacher was there handing out bells and telling the excited five year olds to hold their bells still until it was time to ring them. It was a vain effort on her part and all of the parents in the gym could hear a cacophony of ringing bells from the hallway. 

Soon after they found some seats the lights dimmed and a grey haired woman wearing a fuzzy green sweater and a Santa had walked out onto the stage and welcomed all the families of the students. She then gave them a short rundown of the program and excited the stage just as a line of preschoolers shuffled across it. 

They all looked adorable as they waddled onto the stage looking like little snowmen. They sang Frosty the Snowman, slightly off key, and then they all ran off while their teacher tried to get them to walk backstage calmly. 

“Jack’s class is next, do you have the camera ready?” Cas leans over to whisper to Sam. 

“Dean has it.” Sam whispers back. Cas leans over to Dean and repeats his question and a woman behind them loudly shushes them. Cas glares over his shoulder at her and Dean puts a gentle hand on his shoulder to remind him not to smite the other parents. 

Jack’s class files onto the stage noisily with ringing bells and stomping feet. Jack seems to be the only child holding his bell still like they were told to do. His eyes scan the rows of chairs in the dimly lit gymnasium. He looks nervous and on the verge of tears until he spots Sam, who towers above most people even when he’s sitting. And as soon as he’s located Sam he’s found Dean and Cas too. He grins and waves excitedly, still carefully holding his bell so it doesn’t ring before it’s supposed to. The three men wave back and Dean holds up the camera to record Jack’s part in the christmas program. 

They sing Jingle Bells and then they’re instructed to sit further back on the stage while one of the older classes tells a story. Then Jack’s class is asked to stand again and they sing Silver Bells. Later that evening when they drive back home Dean will comment on how good the bells sounded when the children used them in the songs, and how good they all were at holding their bells still while they were singing. Jack will tell him about how many times the teacher made them practice and how they’d even been late to recess once because some of the other children wouldn’t stop messing around. 

Cas is simultaneously proud and a little bit sad when Jack tells them that he was not one of the children goofing off. He’s proud because his son is well behaved and respectful of his teachers but it makes him a little sad because he never wants the kid to just blindly follow orders. He wants him to make his own decisions. 

By the time they get back to the bunker the kid is out cold in his booster seat. Cas carries him in and deposits him on his bed while Dean and Sam head into the library to finish some research they’d been doing on a case for Clair. 

“Kid down for the cound?” Dean asks when Cas enters the library and joins them. 

“Yes, all the excitement must have worn him out. Didn’t even stir when I took off his shoes and changed him into pajamas.”

“Must be a little kid thing. Sam used to be the exact same way. Just slept through being manhandled into bed.” Dean reaches over to ruffle Sam’s hair and his brother slaps his hand away. 

Dean eventually reaches his limit and shuffles down the hall to his room, stopping to check on the sleeping child on the way. Sam follows soon after and he too pokes his head into Jack’s room before reaching his own room. Cas wanders the bunker silently for several hours, periodically checking in on his sleeping family. Sam and Dean know he checks on the kid but they don’t know that he checks on them every night too, occasionally soothing nightmares before they can get too bad. He never mentions it in the morning because Dean has told him it’s “creepy to watch people sleep dude” and he doesn’t want them to feel uncomfortable. But he also doesn’t want to stop doing it. 

A couple hours before sunrise Cas settles himself into the chair in Jack’s room. When they’d first brough Jack home, right after Kelly had died and before the baby had resurrected Cas, Dean had insisted on getting a rocking chair to put in the kid’s room. He claimed it was to help get the little noise maker to sleep faster but Sam and Cas often found him sitting in the chair cradling the small boy long after he’d fallen to sleep. Even now that Jack was no longer a baby and did not require being rocked to sleep every night. Dean still liked to sit in it to read bedtime stories and Cas often found himself gravitating to it in the middle of the night. 

As he watches the boy sleep, Cas reflects on the life they’ve had for the past five years. While Jack was a nephilim and therefore more durable than a normal child, they’d all decided to take a break from hunting and to give Jack a normal life. Well, as normal as life could be when you had three dads and lived in an underground bunker full of magical artifacts and books. 

Jack still went to school and played at the park, he liked cookies and hated broccoli. He threw tantrums and loved watching scooby doo on saturday mornings with Dean. And in the morning, after everyone was awake and fully caffeinated they were going to pick out a christmas tree and decorate it together because that’s what families do. Even unlikely families like the one they’d formed.


	25. December 25th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I can't believe I actually finished this but here it is. Thanks to everyone who read it.

Dean wakes late on christmas morning and as he walks toward the kitchen he can hear a low hum of voices. He wonder’s who Sam could be talking to when he remembers that Eileen had planned on staying with them for a few days. He’d gotten pretty drunk the night before and he vaguely remembered being manhandled into his room late last night or was it early this morning? Dean shakes his head and stumbles into the kitchen. The voices go silent almost as if they’re holding their breath. Dean doesn’t even spare them a glance as he makes a beeline to the coffee pot. For half a second he thinks he’s caught a glimpse of a tan trench coat but he ignores it. He knows it’s a trick of his subconscious, Cas isn’t there. Cas is never there, not since… Dean shakes his head again and focuses on not spilling the coffee. 

He takes a sip, still facing away from the other people in the room. As much as he loves Sam and Eileen he can’t really stand to be in the same room as them for too long. They’re getting their happy ending and he’s happy for them. He really, truly is but that doesn’t make it hurt less. Every time he sees them share a drawn out glance or gently bump shoulders when they’re walking side by side, his chest aches just a little bit more. And it’s even worse when they notice him looking away when they’re having a moment because then they get these pitying looks, and they try to do things to make him feel included. Like they’re worried about him feeling like a third wheel or something. 

He takes another long sip of hot coffee, bracing himself before he turns around. He knows what he’s gonna see and he knows it will hurt. They’ll be sitting at the table, sharing a ridiculously domestic morning with coffee and light conversation. They’ll be gazing across at each other with shy, private smiles and entwined fingers. And then they’ll notice him staring and they’ll feel bad, they’ll pull away from each other and invite him to sit with them. The conversation will be forced and awkward and he’ll bow out with some lame excuse and spend the next couple hours holed up in his room or driving around aimlessly until he doesn’t feel like his chest has been ripped open and his insides are spilling out. 

Before he works up the courage to turn around he hears them get up and walk out of the room. He bows his head with a deep sigh when he knows they’re gone. Now he feels even worse because his moping has made them so uncomfortable that they didn’t want to even try with him this morning. Not that he blames them. It’s Christmas morning after all and no one wants to be stuck with a sulky joy killer on Christmas morning. Hell, he doesn’t even like being stuck with himself on a regular day. 

Dean turns to the now empty kitchen but it’s not empty. Jack is sitting at the table, wearing a tan leather jacket over a light blue shirt. Dean suddenly realises that it was Jack he’d glimpsed earlier and he wasn’t hallucinating Cas. He thinks that should come as a comfort to him but it doesn’t. 

“Hey kid, didn’t expect to see you here.” Dean takes his coffee and sits across from Jack. “Thought you were busy being God and all.” he waves his hand vaguely in Jack’s direction. 

“Is it not customary to spend Christmas morning with your family?” Jack asks and Dean’s jaw clenches with the wave of pain that hits him. The kid reminds him so much of Cas, if Dean didn't know better he would assume Jack was biologically related to the angel. 

“Yeah, I guess it is.” Dean answers a second later “But we ain't exactly normal.” 

Jack nods in agreement and gives him a gentle smile. Dean examines his kid for a moment while he sips his coffee. He doesn’t look any different, at least not at first glance. There is something though, something just under the surface. Almost like he’s glowing but he’s not. Dean can’t quite put a finger on what it is and after a moment he stops trying. He decides to just chalk it up to Jack’s new God status and leave it at that.

“I missed you and I know I said I’d be hands off, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to visit every now and then.” 

“We missed you too kid, and you can visit any time you want. This is still your home and we’re still your family.” Dean tells him and he really means it. He was angry with Jack and it took him a long time to forgive him but Jack was still his kid. No matter what, that didn’t change. 

“Thank you Dean.” 

Dean nods and takes one last sip of his coffee. “If I’d known you were coming I would have done the whole christmas thing with the tree and the gifts.” he says in an attempt at a conversation. 

“That’s ok, I don’t need gifts but I did bring a gift for you. Well I guess it's for you and Sam in a way, but mostly for you.” Jack smiles at him mischievously. 

“You didn’t have to get me anything”

“I did have to get you this though. You deserve it, we all deserve it.” He adds cryptically and Dean’s mind immediately goes down a forbidden path. His heart speeds up and his traitorous thoughts bring up ideas of Jack bringing Cas back. He shuts those down as fast as he can. He knows if he lets himself hope it will only hurt more when he’s wrong. 

“It’s not a puppy is it? I don’t think Miracle would like sharing the attention.” He tries to make a joke, in a failed attempt to shove the hope further down, but it sounds forced. 

Jack looks at Dean like he can see right into his soul and Dean has the sudden realization that he probably can. Then his gaze shifts over Dean’s shoulder and he smiles knowingly. Hope flairs in Dean’s chest and he struggles to shove it down again. He’s frozen in fear, fear that if he turns there will be nobody there, or it’ll be Sam. Fear that if he turns he’ll see Cas but it won’t be Cas or maybe it will be, and that thought sends a whole new wave of fear. What would he say? What would he do? Jack gives a slight nod and then stands up.

“I’ll be in the library with Sam and Eileen.” He announces to the room and then leaves. Dean stubbornly refuses to turn and watch the kid’s exit. 

The swish of fabric alerts him to the person standing behind him and he takes a steadying breath. He’s fighting a battle inside his head. He wants to turn but he doesn’t either. It’s like the cat in the box thing, Cas is both there and not there. And then two little words break the silence and Dean’s world crashes around him for a second before sliding into its proper place. 

“Hello Dean.” 

“Cas” Dean turns and sees the man standing in the kitchen doorway and he has to catch his breath as his mind screams “he’s here” over and over again. 

Dean is out of his seat before he’s even decided to stand and in the next second the angel is being crushed to his chest. Cas grunts with the force of the hug but quickly hugs Dean back, just as hard. 

“Cas” Dean says again and buries his face in Cas’ neck. The angel’s hands gently rub his back and card through his hair as his tears dampen the tan trench coat. 

“Cas” he croaks after several minutes and he pulls back but keeps a tight grip on the lapels of Cas’ coat.. “Never leave me again. I don’t think I can survive losing you one more time.” He sniffs and smooths Cas’ coat nervously. 

“I won’t” 

“Ok,” Dean scrubs at his face and then gives Cas a smile, “Ok.” 

They spend the rest of Christmas watching classic holiday movies and nobody comments oh how clingy Dean is or the fact that he hasn’t stopped touching some part of Cas all day. They get it. Sam and Eileen were the same way the first couple days after they defeated Chuck. There was some deep rooted need to be in physical contact at all times just to make sure that no one was going anywhere. Jack understood too but on a different level and from more of an omnipotent perspective. 

After Jack has left to do whatever it is he’s been doing, and Sam and Eileen go to bed, Dean gently tugs Cas by the hand as he makes his way to his room. Cas lets himself be led and then sits quietly at the foot of Dean’s bed while he changes into night clothes. Then Dean slowly pushes Cas’ coats off his shoulders and pulls his shirt untucked. Cas looks at him curiously as Dean bends down to pull off Cas’ shoes but he doesn’t ask. Once Dean is satisfied he climbs into his bed and tugs Cas down next to him. 

Cas doesn’t object so Dean turns and presses his back to Cas’ chest and pulls Cas’ arm around his middle, lacing their fingers together over his heart. Cas gets the hint and curls himself around the other man, tucking his face into the crook of Dean’s neck. Dean falls asleep in Cas’ arms and it’s the first peaceful night’s rest he’s had since that day. But before sleep has fully claimed him he mumbles out a soft “Love you” and he feels Cas tighten his hold just a little bit.


End file.
